


FastER! - Inside the 2015 Animated Endurance Racing Series with the Iwatobi and Samezuka teams

by AERS_Radio



Series: The Future Free! Motor Racing AU [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Car Racing, Bathurst 2016: Rin v Nagisa, Friendship, Gen, Interlagos: Rin v May, Laguna Seca: Ai vs Matt Ishida (and Nagisa gets involved), Le Mans start: Rin v Haru, MakoHaru: business as usual, MomoTori rivalry, Multiple Crossovers, Nurburgring: Samezuka v Pataki Sport, Pikes Peak: Nagisa v Rei, Post-Canon, ReiHaru: tension, RinHaru: swimming careers, RinTori support, Spa: Nagisa v Sosuke v Phoebe Heyerdahl, Street Race: Rin v Sosuke - Misty v Momo - Nagisa v Naruto, Suzuka: Sosuke v Nagisa - Makoto v Rin - Makoto v Sakura Haruno - Haru v Spirou (ftw again!), Swim-off: Team Dolphin v Team Shark v Team Squirrel, Tsukuba: testing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-26 13:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 103,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5005921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AERS_Radio/pseuds/AERS_Radio
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Iwatobi Racing Team and Samezuka Academy squads are back for more, as they take on a new season of racing. 2014 saw Iwatobi have the upper hand, with a surprise podium at the 24-hour event at Le Mans, and defeating their relay rivals at the home round in Suzuka. With Nagisa returning from injury, will the blue-and-whites be able to follow up on their spectacular debut? Will the black-and-reds be able to put together an ultimate team to overtake them? How will both squads balance their personal lives with a full season? And will either ever be able to take the battle to the heavyweights of the Series?</p><p>Again, focus on the characters from <i>Free!</i> in multi-crossover motor races - cameos galore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Tsukuba!

**Author's Note:**

> in this fic, most segments will each centred on an individual character. There will be one for each Iwatobi and Samezuka character, plus a few guests. This first segment is for the mended, returning, excited and cheeky Nagisa Hazuki!  
> The companion blog, [aers-radio.tumblr.com](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com), will feature profiles of the protagonists, onboard videos of the locations visited and the occasional drawing. The publishing calendar is also available so you know when to expect the next chapter!  
> Enjoy!
> 
>  **Update 30 Oct 2017.** Again, this fic was written as post-canon before _Timeless Medley_ , _Take Your Marks_ and the 2018 series were announced. Some elements may no longer fit canon.
> 
> Again, rated T (13+) for technicality, rare cussing, alcohol references, potential for accident and injury.  
> Disclaimer in author profile.

**Friday 13 th-Sunday 15th March 2015**

At the bottom of the famous Pikes Peak, Nagisa was ready to go in the most brutal car available: the Audi Sport Quattro S1. The car had pressed a tongue-out groan of disgust from Rei, who chose the Ford RS200, which was far more beautiful in his eyes, and therefore had to be more efficient than “that unsightly brick on wheels”, as he put it. Their runs up the mountain, the 'Race to the Clouds', began. The styles were noticeably different: Nagisa was drifting joyously through the corners, making the tyres smoke on the tarmac and throwing up the stones once he reached the gravel section, while Rei took cleaner lines. For rallying through the sequence of hairpins, the latter technique was less efficient, and, add to that the superior grunt of the Audi, Nagisa was leading the way, when things suddenly turned to disaster for Rei, as he misjudged a corner in the third section. Unable to stop the car, he screamed with frustration as it skidded off the road, and brought his hands to his face in horror as he fell down the ravine!

Nagisa burst out laughing, commenting “you'll never make the checkpoint in time now, Rei-chan!” Rei respawned in the corner, got going, but sure enough, he ran out of time, and his game was over in that third sector. Nagisa, meanwhile, got to battle the fourth and final segment of the climb. The force feedback from the steering wheel on this arcade game wasn't as strong as in a real race car, but it allowed him to test his left arm. Another minute of concentration and he'd be done. Rei bobbed his head in approval as Nagisa crossed the finish line, setting a high score along the way.

“YAY! All-time third!”, Nagisa shouted, raising his arms. His celebration didn't last long though. “Hey, Rei-chan, I'm sure I can go faster, let's have another go!”

“Sure thing, Nagisa-kun”, Rei answered, bringing his hand to his glasses as he did so often. “I now have full knowledge of the course, I won't lose to the clock this time!” With that, another coin went in the machine, and the screens invited the pair to choose their weapon for another climb.

 

The next day, they met up with Makoto, Haru and Gou at Akihabara Station in Tokyo. After staying overnight at Rei's, Nagisa was reunited with his other friends for the first time since the New Year party. The end of the year of studies had kept them all busy, and it had gone mostly well for all of them except Nagisa, who was set to re-do his first year in medical sciences in Tottori. He figured he wanted to work with animals, so he aimed for a vet school. It was a bold ambition for someone who apprehended intense studying, but he had gone for the “deluxe option”, as he called it, first. Everyone was confident he'd succeed eventually, putting his difficultes down in large part to the effects of his injury in the Autumn.

“I'm sure you'll rebound, Nagisa-kun”, Gou said kindly.

“Yeah, you look really fired up! Put that into your work and you'll be unstoppable!”, Makoto encouraged. Indeed, Nagisa was beyond excited that day, and wasn't hiding it well at all. The next day, he was getting back in the race car, and he couldn't wait. They moved towards their train. Destination: the Tsukuba Circuit.

At the hotel a few miles away from the track, they met up with some senior staff of the Iwatobi Racing Team. Chrysler had only shipped over one motorhome, and mechanics had priority to sleep in it, because they'd have to set the pit garage up the next morning. Rei and Gou were happy to see that Jeremy Sharp had renewed as their crew chief. He had become a familiar face, and their working relationship had been great in 2014. The blond American in his early thirties explained the Sunday timetable to the five over dinner. It was going to be a packed day, with two four-hour sessions planned: 9 AM-1 PM and 3 PM-7 PM, allowing for some practice in the dark. Once they had finished eating, it was urgent for everyone to rest, as there would be a very early morning call to take the taxi to the circuit.

But Nagisa's excitement failed to die down, and it was so annoying that, at one point, Rei contemplated knocking on Gou's door to ask to use in the second bed in her room. Sleeping alone in the same room as a girl would have been a first for him, not to mention that there would be murder if Rin was in the same hotel and found out... The idea went as quickly as it came, and Rei was forced to put up with a very agitated Nagisa all night. For the second consecutive night.

 

The next morning, Nagisa had got out of bed like a shot when the alarm rang, and he had to pull the covers off Rei when he found him still lying down after he'd washed and changed. Rei plodded into the bathroom and gave himself a cold shower to wake up properly. When he came back out, he found Nagisa, dancing in front of the window to the music he had on his phone. Rei couldn't hold back his amazement. How did he do it? He seemed more energetic than ever despite two nights of restless anticipation.

Nagisa turned round, and didn't stop moving despite noticing that Rei was staring at him. He was absolutely unashamed.

“How long have you been watching me?”, he asked, removing one earbud and moving up to his blue-haired room-mate.

Rei blushed at the question, and stuttered, “erm, I wasn't watching _per se_...”

“Come on, how long?”, Nagisa reiterated, giving Rei a huge grin and a cheeky wink.

Rei coughed and just muttered, “well, I only got out of the bathroom just now.” Then he found a way out of his embarrassment. “What are you listening to?”

“Oh, it's called 'Walking on Sunshine'”, Nagisa answered. Rei let out a quick chuckle.

“Is that the super-cheesy song used in movies to tell the spectators a character is really happy? You don't _really_ need that song right now, do you?”

“We're not in a movie, silly”, Nagisa scoffed back while picking up his pink and white jacket. “Last year, Fantasio said he listens to music he likes before a run. I'm just trying it out.”

“Well, it's kept your mood upbeat. I just hope it doesn't distract you.”

“I'll be fine”, Nagisa dismissed, putting the earbud back in and turning to leave the room for breakfast. Instantly after he passed by, Rei felt a slap hit his lower back. He straightened up and frowned. Definitely, it was lower than his lower back.

“Nagisa-kun, did you just do what I think you did?”, he asked, raising his voice a little while the door opened.

“Sorry, Rei-chan!”, Nagisa called back from the corridor. He probably hadn't heard Rei's complaint, but he guessed he'd be expected to apologise flatly for the tap...

“He's relentless”, Rei just thought to himself, smiling again. Even if it was tiring, he was touched to see Nagisa this excited again.

 

The team was at the circuit for 7 o'clock, when it opened, and all the workspaces, tools and, of course, the car, could be installed in the pit box. All four boys were due to run, even Rei, who, it was agreed, should be given some time as the squad's reserve driver, and they changed into their race suits together in a bedroom in the motorhome. It was a scene that amazingly hadn't happened the year before, and it immediately reminded Nagisa of the swimming club days. In fact, the boys had instinctively positioned themselves as they would have in front of the lockers – looking at their backs, from left to right: Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, Rei. The last young man noticed that something was different though.

“Damn, we don't have any towels to cover ourselves.” And changing into fireproof underwear was mandatory.

“Well, we can either promise each other we won't look”, Makoto laughed, “or get creative.” He grabbed his long-sleeved fireproof T-shirt, and tied it around his waist, before dropping his trousers. “This looks reasonable, right?”

Nagisa gasped and burst out laughing. Makoto felt offended. “What?! It works! You can't see anything!”, he shouted, looking around and under his T-shirt, expecting to find some sort of gap.

“No, Mako-chan, it's not that!”, Nagisa continued giggling. “It's Haru-chan! Have you seen what he's wearing?”

“Nagisa-kun, we just said no peeking!”, Rei protested.

“No, seriously, Rei-chan, it's ok to look”, Nagisa reprised. Rei overcame feeling shameful about looking anywhere to his left, and saw what his neighbour was getting at.

Haru was still capable of stripping faster than anyone else, and he was standing with his fireproof top in his hand, ready to follow Makoto's advice on privacy, wearing only... a swimsuit. “What?”, he said, most seriously.

 

Once they were ready, they walked to the garage, and found the car there. Nagisa was overjoyed. Cheering, he ran up to it, and leaned over the left-rear wheel area, as if he wanted to hug the vehicle.

“It's chassis number 7, brand new, and it's yours”, Jeremy announced.

“Nice”, Makoto responded.

“Any evolutions on it?”, asked Rei.

“Nothing really”, Jeremy answered. “The works team at Road Atlanta though, they're trying out new brake ducts. Brake cooling was a big issue at Le Mans last year, so it could be a major improvement.”

“Cool, when do we get it?”, Rei enquired.

Jeremy lifted his shoulders. Rei wasn't going to like the answer. “Le Mans, probably.”

Makoto looked over in surprise. “Not sooner?”

“Well, perhaps Laguna, if they validate it quickly”, Jeremy tried to reassure. That would still leave them running first two races of the year on the old system. “Thing is, brake wear doesn't come into play too much in the races outside Le Mans. We're still going to have to run practice with older pads. These ones are new though. Everything's new.”

Makoto then strayed away from the technical discussion to join Haru and Nagisa outside the garage. The three were looking up and down pit lane to see which teams would be out on track with them.

The Tsukuba Anime Test was one of three collective tests organised on the same day to give some pre-season running time to all teams, especially privateers who may not have the funding to test on their own. Later that day, other cars would be out to play at Monza, Italy, and at Road Atlanta in the USA, like Jeremy had mentioned. The Japanese venue was the short, technical Tsukuba Circuit, ideal for trying out a high-downforce configuration. It was a small track, but the turnout was also small, with just six teams present, running a total of eight cars. The richest manufacturer-backed Japanese teams were elsewhere, like Team Rocket who were taking part in the Monza session with their Alfa Romeo, or Team Kanto who tested secretly on their own at the Lausitzring in Germany. Their Digimon rivals, however, had opted to run at Tsukuba. Cadillacs made up half the field, with two Ciens for the reinforced works team (the second Digimon car would run a partial season), and a beginner squad, Racing Team TechnoVoyager, joining to run the American cars in both classes, and they were thus taking part in their first official test.

The rest of the meagre pack was made up of CT Newteam's Citroën GT (which ran branded as 'Olive & Tom Football Team' in French-speaking countries), the Iwatobi Chrysler, Samezuka's Mazda, and, much to Nagisa's delight, the Team7 McLaren, in the next pit stall. When Nagisa shouted “hey, Naruto-san!” and waved in the direction of the drivers of the #7 entry, Makoto told him to calm down. Still, Naruto managed a quick wave back before he became more engrossed with a discussion with his engineer.

“We should go over our running order”, Makoto continued, heading back into the garage. As often, he would be first out to perform the system checks. Rei would go second, while the pace was still moderate on a track that no-one had ever visited before, then Nagisa would get his turn before handing over to Haru. This first cycle would cover just under two hours, then the race trio would share the rest of the sessions, with Rei slotting in just one 40-minute stint in the afternoon. For the man set to return to his position as race engineer, it was about driving a little to stay sharp. After all, he was due to replace Haru at the third round of the series in June. With that verified, Haru, Makoto and Nagisa returned outside, strolling up and down the pit lane, soaking in the atmosphere.

 

The meet really was a small, informal, seemingly self-organised affair. There might not even be one AERS official for two teams on site, while there was always at least one standing in each garage to make sure the pit stops were legal at race weekends. They still gave out instructions: civilised driving on track, safe practices in the pit lane. Fines could be issued for clear malpractice, but there could be no sporting penalties.

There were also a few cameramen, some photographers and a couple of journalists. Most of them were over at Samezuka's garage, as the squad presented its evolved look for 2015. The car hadn't changed, but the three usual racers, Rin, Sosuke and Ai, plus reserve driver Momotaro, had new race suits, with more white on the upper half, featuring a shark fin design for their main swimwear sponsor along the legs, and their names written in large on the back. After a moment of posing, the media dispersed to capture the cars coming to life, and to witness the first steps of Team TechnoVoyager. With under a quarter of an hour to go, the Iwatobi boys caught a quick word with their Samezuka friends, as they had seen the commotion at their pit. Nagisa was excited by the new suits, and was roving around Ai to see every angle of his.

“You're rocking it, Ai-chan!”, he exclaimed. Ai was, as always, embarrassed at getting Nagisa's attention. “Aha, it says 'Nitro Nitori' on the back! Very clever!”, was the blond's next remark.

“Yeah, I came up with that”, Rin smiled.

“Unfortunately for the rest of us, that's about as good as Rin's jokes get”, Seijuro mentioned. Makoto was amused at both the play on Ai's name, and Seijuro's wit. Inside though, the Samezuka tactician was keeping to himself the thought that it would even be quite a good joke, if Nitori was actually fast.

The sight of the first cars being rolled out onto the apron was the signal for everyone to get to their action stations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the blog, I've put up the [fic cover](http://41.media.tumblr.com/b3d727bcbdb98ccf53c4ba4ae085349a/tumblr_nw9zs5iLW91uafmyjo1_1280.jpg) and [Nagisa's profile](https://41.media.tumblr.com/a3409c40fa269c0564348e23155d26ff/tumblr_nwa033yRlI1uafmyjo1_540.png) on the day of the Tsukuba Test.  
> Tune in next Thursday for the second half of the first segment!


	2. Back behind the wheel

**Sunday 15 th March 2015**

Makoto donned his helmet and gloves, and slid into the cockpit of the ME Four-Twelve. Haru then assisted with the belts and accessories, going as fast as he could. Even before the green light came on at the end of pit lane, some form of practice had started. Then the engine fired up. The growl of the V12 brought a smile to Nagisa's face. He would have wanted to drive then and now, but at the same time, he wanted to hear the cars fly by from the outside. So it wasn't all bad that he'd have to wait before his turn. Gou checked the radio communications, and advised that Makoto move straight away. He was the first at the end of pit lane, and waited half a minute for the light to change.

At 9:00 AM precisely, Nagisa heard the engine note rise. Makoto was on his way to discover the Tsukuba track. Around 70 seconds later, he was the first to return to the main straight, roaring by, with Tsubasa Ozhora in the Citroën a comfortable distance behind. The two works Cadillacs were next, the number 6 silver car used by the regulars followed, almost like its shadow, by a carbon black copy of it, numbered 36. Then came the Mazda. The scream of the rotary engine wasn't as extraordinary as Nagisa remembered it, because Sosuke, at the wheel, was going at a moderate pace and weaving to get some heat into the tyres. The McLaren was the last car on the circuit for now, as the new drivers at TechnoVoyager were finishing their briefing.

Just over 20 minutes later, Makoto was back in the pits, and the car was wheeled inside. Nothing was wrong, it was just that the outgoing driver was going to give some pointers to his colleagues on how to navigate the course. Makoto and Rei, helmets on, stood holding either side of a track map, while the shorter Nagisa stood on the side crash structure of the car, just inside the door, to peer over the top of his taller friends' shoulders. Haru was in no hurry, Makoto would explain it all to him calmly while the other two were driving.

After a few minutes of discussion, it was Rei's turn to take the Chrysler out. Throughout his run, Nagisa's anticipation built up further and further inside him. No sooner had Gou given him the green light to put his helmet and gloves on, he vanished from pit wall to do just that, reappearing at the garage door completely geared up in less than the time it took for Rei to complete a circuit, which was just over a minute. Rei and Nagisa had the tricky task of performing the first mock pit stop of the season: the full service would be practiced, with refuelling, driver swap and new tyres. The two boys were a bit rusty at the task, and the car was up on the jacks for the tyre change before the door closed. Still, Gou and Jeremy were reasonably satisfied, as nothing had been forgotten in the exchange.

Once the lollipop man lifted his sign, Nagisa fired up the engine and drove off, spinning the rear wheels a little more than he would normally. The sound brought on an ear-to-ear grin. He advanced along pit road on the pit speed limiter, taking deep breaths and feeling the harness firmly restrain him. The green light and a solid white line indicated where he'd be allowed to let loose. The marshal standing there held a blue flag, but he wasn't waving it. There was no traffic Nagisa would have to yield to. He pressed the button on the steering wheel to disable the limiter, and he only had a short burst of acceleration before he had to take the first hairpin. After that corner, he floored the throttle and clicked up a few gears. His grin somehow got wider! He'd missed the feeling of being pushed back into his seat, and the 'straight' that connected the first two hairpins actually had a couple of curves in it, and, trying to shift his weight either side, he rode the slight lateral G-forces they induced.

At the next right-hander, he radioed pit wall. “Hey, they have a Dunlop bridge here too!”

Gou laughed. “I'm not sure what sort of message I was expecting”, she muttered to Jeremy, who was also listening in. The joy in Nagisa's voice was obvious, but it was important that he didn't get too excited. Jeremy reminded him to take it easy as he approached the faster section of the course, and spend two laps getting heat into the tyres. “Watch out for blue flags along the way.”

“Tell the others that!”, was the reply. The two managers looked on in astonishment as they saw their car come out of the sweeping final corner on the outside of the TechnoVoyager Cien. Rei saw it too, and was mildly horrified. He wanted to snatch one of the headsets and scream at his friend to be careful!

“Cold tyres, Nagisa, remember that!”, Jeremy insisted.

“I am”, Nagisa replied. “I took it in third gear and was still quicker...” After going through the first chicane, he continued: “what's the compound again?”

Jeremy and Gou were bewildered and happy at the same time. Their driver was in the zone, and had lost nothing of his power and will to drive fast. All the teams looking on had taken note of the statement that pass had made: Nagisa Hazuki was back, and hungry.

Inside the car, Nagisa was finding his rhythm, hopping from one turn to the next. As it took between 55 and 60 seconds to complete a tour, he called Tsukuba “a cute little track” on the radio. He particularly relished the run out of the quick last corner, flinging the car out to the left and accelerating up to fifth gear, before his shoulders pressed on the harness as he braked hard into the first-gear hairpin.

It was clear he was delivering, as he was already faster than Makoto and Rei, but the team's physio had worries that he would suffer eventually. After 15 minutes, he took Gou's headset and gave out an exercise.

“I want you to concentrate for a moment on your body”, he said. “In the right-hand corners, you should be pushing the steering wheel with your left hand. Make sure you're doing that, please.” Although he had physically made a full recovery from his injury, Nagisa might still be subconsciously thinking that his left side was weaker, and therefore be tiring his right arm more, rather than producing an equivalent effort for both sides, which was key to being endurant. The physician was going to remind Nagisa about this all day, especially during the longer runs programmed for the afternoon.

Half a dozen laps later, Nagisa was called in. “We're putting the car in the garage for checks”, Jeremy announced on the radio.

“Aw, but I have over half a tank left!”, Nagisa jokingly protested. But, as planned, all four Iwatobi drivers had to have a turn in the first two hours to learn the course.

When he got back to the pits, the car was indeed wheeled inside the garage, and Nagisa sighed, still beaming. “I can't wait to do this again!”, he whispered to himself, as Jeremy opened the door.

“Great run, congratulations”, he said, holding out his hand to pull Nagisa out of the car once he'd undone the safety belt. What he saw when he stepped outside made him even happier than he was inside: the team had decided to celebrate his return to the cockpit, and all the mechanics were applauding. Rei came up and gave him a big hug. It was unusual for Rei to show affection like this, but it was more about getting a message through to him: “you managed to freak me out on the first lap, you monster!”

“You worry too much, Rei-chan”, Nagisa replied once his blue-haired friend let go of him, as he started to take off his helmet. No sooner was he showing his grinning face to the entire crew, than his sister came up to him. “Nanako-chan, you're here!”, Nagisa shouted in surprise. The two hugged while Gou explained the situation.

“She couldn't get here before 10, which is why we had to put Rei-kun in second to surprise you when you came back in...”

“It feels like it's my birthday”, Nagisa smiled. “It's really kind, I'm so happy. Something like this must have been Mako-chan's idea, I bet!”

“Guess again, Nagisa”, the team founder replied, as Haru walked into the garage, behind Makoto and up to the car. He was geared up, ready to go. His piercing, focused blue eyes looked at Nagisa's from inside the helmet.

“Haru-chan...?”, Nagisa gasped, his cheeks turning bright pink. Haru spoke in his calm, yet purposeful manner.

“I've been looking forward to racing with you again, Nagisa. Welcome back.” With that, he took Nagisa's seat adapter out of the car, and inserted his own, before getting Makoto's assistance to buckle up. Meanwhile, Rei noted that his name could be removed from the car.

“Hell no, Rei-chan!”, Nagisa refused. “You're replacing Haru-chan at Laguna, and, besides, I want your name on the car!” He hadn't felt this alive since swimming at the Nationals. And he knew there was more to come. But before he'd get another run, he'd have to report to his physio. While he moved to do that, the Chrysler was rolled out again, and Makoto watched calmly on as Haru drove off for his first taste of Tsukuba.

 

A couple of hours later, Nagisa took the final 40 minutes before the lunch break, after practicing an exchange with Haru. Emphasis was once again on how he'd cope physically in the long run. After the red flags came out, the managers withheld his times.

“Haru was fastest, but times don't matter this morning”, Rei said. “This afternoon, however, we'll be looking for regularity, and hopefully we'll be running non-stop.”

The two-hour pause was an opportunity for the small crowd to come down from the grandstands and visit the pit lane and paddock. While the mechanics made a few tweaks to the set-up after hearing Makoto and Haru's feedback, the drivers met the public, had some pictures taken and signed some autographs. Behind the Digimon and Team7 squads who had been around for much longer, the Iwatobi box was probably the third most popular stop for the spectators, as they got to have a quick chat with the trio that finished second in the previous year's main event.

Just before midway through the break, while the five friends dug into their bentos on pit wall, a man near his thirties approached with a clipboard. It was a commentator for AERS Radio, doing his job in covering the pre-season test.

“It's great to see you here”, he started. “Look, there are very few teams here, so for the programme I'm preparing, I think it would be nice to get a point of view from everyone. Would it be possible for Hazuki-san to come up to the booth at some point in the afternoon for an interview?” Nagisa was blushing a little at the suggestion, while his two regular team-mates smiled in his direction. Rei was puzzled.

“In the middle of the session?”, he asked. “Why not now?”

“I'm completely booked”, the reporter replied. “I've just done a collective interview at Team7, I've got to be at Samezuka's in... 4 minutes, then I have the whole Digimon crew at 2:30... I'd love to talk to all of you, but I guess you won't be in the mood at 7 tonight. No offense to Nanase-san and Tachibana-san, I just don't want to inconvenience you too much. So if you can make Hazuki-san available for 15-20 minutes, that'll be great.” Rei still looked uneasy. He brought his hand to his glasses, while Gou cheerfully said that Nagisa could certainly do it. Rei intervened with a sense of urgency.

“If I may, just... No questions about the accident.” It made the atmosphere a little awkward, but the journalist detached his pen from the clipboard, lifted a sheet and seemed to be crossing a line out, while stating, reassuringly, “I didn't have any planned”. He was in a hurry though, so he'd come back to get a time for the appointment.

Rei felt a little silly. He was being very protective, and expected Nagisa to tell him that he worried too much, but the blond boy was thankfully still hugely excited at the prospect, helped by Makoto who was making a big deal of him getting a one-on-one interview.

“Man, you're stressing me out”, he said, albeit shivering with delight. “What am I going to say? Gou-chan, I'm going to need your coaching!”

***

**Interview transcript: Nagisa Hazuki (Iwatobi Racing Team)**

**Q –** _First of all, welcome back to the AERS, Nagisa-san, and back behind the wheel again. How has your day been going?_

 **A –** Perfectly! This place is really nice, the track's not crowded, and the weather has behaved itself. Ideal conditions!

 **Q –** _And your feeling with the car? We saw you attacking early on, it seemed at least._

 **A –** Yeah, I found my marks with the car again very quickly, it's as if I drove it just two days ago! The circuit was easy to memorise, and I could concentrate on my rhythm from the beginning, which was good, because the team wanted me to focus on effort management and making me work my arms normally.

 **Q –** _Ok, there's still just under two hours to go in this test day, but what would your team take away from today so far?_

 **A –** Certainly the pleasure to be back in business, for me especially. And all of us have driven a fair share, [Haru Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, reserve driver Rei Ryugazaki] and myself, we've had no unexpected interruptions. We really hit the jackpot when we chose the car, Chrysler have made a fantastic, fast and reliable machine.

 **Q –** _It's fair to say the Iwatobi Racing Team had ups and downs last year, but the outcome overall was positive, with a podium at Le Mans and a good result at Suzuka. Where do you place the bar for 2015?_

 **A –** It's hard to say we'll aim for better results than last year. I mean, apart from Donington, it's going to be hard to improve, but we have six races on our calendar [all bar Brazil], and we'll seize every chance. We're not favourites, so that's what we've got to do I think: place ourselves as outsiders and jump on opportunities, which is what we did at Le Mans... sort of unintentionally, given that we didn't know what to expect!

 **Q –** _I was talking to the Samezuka drivers earlier, and they said their goal for 2015 will be to finish ahead of you as much as possible. What do you think of that?_

 **A –** Last year's Suzuka race showed that we might be evenly matched, so yeah, if we can finish ahead of Samezuka more often than they do ahead of us, that'll be satisfying. We've seen that Rin [Matsuoka] and Sosuke [Yamazaki] are tough drivers to face, so it's a challenge, and we'll be happy if we beat them, for sure.

 **Q –** _So are we going to see more of the spectacular, incisive Nagisa Hazuki we saw at the TLM last year?_

 **A –** Haha, well, my philosophy in the car is simple: if I hesitate or apprehend, I'll lose. I have to drive with confidence, because everyone around me is. If that answers your question...

 **Q –** _Tell us a little more about that start at the TLM. What was going through your mind as you picked off the places, passing some well-weathered drivers along the way?_

 **A –** It was surprising! At the start, well, the inside lane got away slower, so I was alongside for the chicane to pass Gary [Oak]. Then I just caught the tow from the Maserati and went for the inside again, there wasn't much resistance. I expected the others to weave more, maybe scare me, which did happen with the Ford a few laps later, but with Fantasio, again, he didn't seem to resist much. [note: the Peugeot had a KERS malfunction at that point]

 **Q –** _And at the end, it just got better until that duel for the win with Spirou. Do you think you'd have done better than your team-mate?_

 **A –** I doubt it. I was on the end of my run anyway. We had all driven a lot by then, so I think what Haru did was the best thing possible, and even that was pretty cool. We got on the podium and it was an unforgettable moment, so no regrets.

 **Q –** _Just give us a quick, clear objective for your team at the TLM this year, please._

 **A –** Whoa!... Just to finish again would be good! Like I said, we're expecting nothing as big as last year, at least because, I think, more cars will survive, there will be less problems. But we will give everything, as ever!

 **Q –** _So, we heard that you're going to attack just as hard this year. What are we going to see from your team-mates?_

 **A –** It doesn't look like Haru's got slower over the winter. He's an awesome driver, very clean lines and very quick, so yeah, I'd say we'll see some good things from him this year. And mark me, Makoto's going to be more impressive. He's a super-regular driver, good for long runs, and he's great with the engineers, and at getting messages through to Rei and the crew about what we want and need, so he's super important to have.

 **Q –** _A question I often ask is how motor racing fits in people's lives. There are very few full-time petrolheads in the Series, so what about you? All you guys are studying, I believe, how do you work with that?_

 **A –** Yeah, we travel with the uni work to do. Last year, in Europe, it was difficult to maintain the studies with discovering the places and the sport. But we have tough managers like Rei and Gou [Matsuoka] who make sure we do our training, swim, visit the physio, but also do our homework, and that's how we're going to go about it again this year.

 **Q –** _And how did you decide to get into this? What was the context that brought you together to form your team?_

 **A –** With Haru and Makoto, we've known each other for a long time, back to elementary school when we joined the same swim club. We reunited in high school and got swimming together again, Gou and Rei joined, and we had a great time. Haru and Makoto moved on, but then, at the end of 2013, the racing team sort of... happened. Rei came up with a plan, we went to America to test the Chrysler, they said they wanted us, and we wanted them... I don't know, it seems from one day to the next we had this project, it happened rather fast.

 **Q –** _So you guys were swimmers in high school, and Haru is actually competing at international level now. Motor racing, swimming... Very different sports, right?_

 **A –** Sure, quite different sports, but what we found out is that endurance racing is very much a relay sport, and the swimming relay is what we enjoyed the most in high school. So to be able to do relays that go on for hours and hours [laughs]... It's amazing, I can't wait for the first race.

***

 **TSUKUBA ANIME TEST** (pre-season collective test, Asia)

Practiced: 8 (7 X1, 1 X2)

1\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuga - 51"720

2\. Samezuka Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - Matsuoka/Yamazaki/Nitori/Mikoshiba - 52"585

3\. Digimon Team A - #6 Cadillac Cien - M.Ishida/T.Kamiya/S.Takenouchi - 53"173

4\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - Nanase/Tachibana/Hazuki/Ryugazaki - 53"509

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By “Dunlop bridge”, Nagisa means an overpass shaped like a tyre (and advertising Dunlop tyres) - you can spot it on the onboard video I've linked on my blog [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/131700729631/the-cute-tsukuba-circuit-onboard-with-juichi). It is a rather common piece of furniture at circuits, or at least a classic due to its presence for decades at Le Mans. So far, Nagisa has only driven on tracks with a Dunlop bridge. That will change at the first proper event of the season...


	3. What I wanted to tell you last September

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Spirou takes Haru on a date. Sort of. XD
> 
> Spirou's driver profile [is on the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/132549168781/anyway-on-to-something-more-light-headed-the). He's in another league compared to the Iwatobi guys...

**Thursday 16 th April 2015**

A man in red walked in the road, stopping at the trough between the hills either side of the fast Eau Rouge corner. The hills were steep, and only by standing in that spot could one grasp just how steep: the Raidillon was like a vertical wall of tarmac. Spa-Francorchamps wasn't nicknamed the 'Ardennes roller-coaster' for no reason.

Spirou remembered the first time he drove up this hill. It was in a racecar entirely designed for speed, a Le Mans Prototype, all of seven years ago. The car didn't sound very different to his current vehicle, but it had remarkable aerodynamic downforce. Cruising on his slow installation laps, he didn't lift at all through this sequence of corners. Then, he took a more aggressive approach, and the hill bit him. Diving down from La Source hairpin on full revs, he cautiously lifted on the approach to the left-right sequence. He knew it was a quick corner, he was prepared for the speed, but it was the change of incline that took him by surprise. The compression made him gasp. He was suddenly going uphill, and he couldn't see the tree-tops beyond the track. He knew the kink was there, just beyond the rise, yet he couldn't see it. And he was approaching it fast. He dabbed the brakes, tilted the steering wheel to the left because he knew that if he didn't, he'd head straight for the tyre walls. He felt unsure that he would make it. He was travelling at over 200 km/h and could pretty much only see the sky. When he reached the crest, he was convinced the car had actually jumped. But he could see the road again, and the trees either side. After that insane couple of seconds, things were back to normal. And he was in the middle of the road, which told him that he could/should take that corner even faster. As if that wasn't crazy enough! For the whole session, this area of the course continued to intimidate him. As he started to take Pouhon and Blanchimont faster, he thought to himself: “is there nowhere to breathe on this circuit?!”

Still, he worked at it and quickly turned some good times. As did his team-mates, and the Journal Spirou team took their maiden victory at their home race in Belgium. An extremely joyous moment, and the first of many. In fact, the black and yellow Peugeot 908 swept all three rounds of the 2008 AERS, following up their Spa breakthrough with their first Le Mans triumph, and victory in the inaugural Suzuka 8 Hours Anime Race. The Series was in its early days, only just starting to venture beyond the Le Mans race which had existed for nearly a decade, and as time went by, it expanded to 4, 5, 6, then 7 rounds. With the LMP, Spirou, his long-time friend Fantasio and his colleague Seccotine racked up 7 more wins in next 5 years. For 2014, the rules changed to the Experimental norms, the car changed to the Onyx, the third driver changed to Zorglub, but the success didn't leave: the team took another 3 victories, including a hard-earned third Toon Le Mans.

All these years, all this knowledge, all these podiums, yet Spirou remained a level-headed, unpretentious competitor. And he held one reason for that before his eyes; the Raidillon continued to keep him honest. For all his experience, he knew this corner required the same amount of bravery every time. For all the intense sensations he'd felt, a rare few shunts that had shaken his body and the more common wins that elated his mind, he still held his breath for the decompression when the car leapt out from the valley. “The launch ramp”, “the crest of faith”, “Spa's Mountain”... He seemed to come up with a new nickname for the Raidillon every year, a sure sign that it was his favourite corner.

Spirou stood motionless while other drivers prepared to climb the cliff on their track walk. He saluted them as they walked by, and they waved back, acknowledging their host. Spirou felt like he was a bellboy once again, inviting guests onto the premises. He wasn't going for the track walk, as he had inspected the circuit the day before. He was killing a little time before an appointment. The time for that neared, and he wandered back up towards pit lane, and, through his garage, he walked into the paddock, and up to the Iwatobi Racing Team's motorhome.

When he got there, he waited. From inside, Makoto noticed him, and called him into the lounge. The tall, well-built young man told Spirou that the person he was expecting was running a little late, but reassured him that he wouldn't be long. Meanwhile, he got the chance to congratulate the team on securing a deal to race a second season, and congratulate Nagisa on his recovery.

Haru eventually appeared, his hair visibly damp. When Spirou insisted that they move, as he had to be back early evening for a team briefing, Haru realised he'd left his wallet in his room. Spirou told him not to worry. “I'm inviting.” Again. After the two had left, Nagisa and Rei asked Makoto what that was all about, since Haru hadn't told them.

 

Spirou drove Haru to Spa. It was a typical European countryside town, large enough to have a pool. Haru's attention was drawn towards a 'Piscine' signpost. Spirou noticed it out of the corner of his eye and smiled. The car trip was silent; Haru didn't initiate any conversation because Spirou had told him it was he who had something to tell him, so Haru was waiting on that. His driver would start talking when he was comfortably seated in the café he frequented whenever he was in the area.

The landlord recognised him straight away, and he held his hand out from behind the bar.

“Hey, Spirou”, he beamed, “here for the big race on Sunday, huh? I'll be cheering you on as ever. Who have you brought with you this time?”

“This is the guy who ran me close at Le Mans last year”, Spirou replied. “Haru, this is Gustave. Gustave, Haru.” The two spoke in French, which Haru didn't understand, but he gathered that the last sentence was introduction, so he raised one hand in acknowledgement, only to see that the barman had his arm extended, expecting a handshake, so he did that. Gustave's grip was firm and confident, while Haru's was weak and shy; he still wasn't the most outgoing and socially confident person in the world. The landlord then took the pair's orders, and invited them to take a table, he'd bring them their drinks shortly. Spirou went for a beer, while Haru asked for a mint green tea. The former sighed as he sat on the cushioned bench, the latter taking a seat opposite.

“I never miss a trip to this place before the race weekend starts”, he said, before leaning forward and crossing his arms on the table. “So, how was your winter, Haru?” The way Spirou pronounced Haru's name was peculiar. It wasn't the Japanese way, with the short 'u' on the end, or the 'Hah-roo' he heard the most in Europe. It was distinctly French: 'Arue'. The young dark-haired man didn't know whether he liked the curious ring it had to it, but he noticed it. After a few seconds of thought, he answered.

“Not a lot. Studying, training.”

“Ah yes, you want to be a pro swimmer”, Spirou remembered. “So what's the objective?”

“We just had Nationals, and I did well enough to qualify for the Worlds this Summer”, Haru said, without any hint of pride. His ginger-haired host's eyes opened wide, and his smile evolved into a content grin.

“That's amazing!”, Spirou congratulated. He wasn't expecting such impressive news. “Wow, awesome! So you're going for a medal?”

“It's not going to be easy”, Haru shrugged. “I wasn't first in my country for a start. I'm just happy to swim in a big event like that. I'll take the experience for now.”

“And when will it be?”

“Late July-early August.”

“Ah good, not conflicting with the racing!” Spirou smiled with satisfaction and winked. Haru smiled slightly in return.

“I'll be missing Laguna so I don't interrupt my preparation, but I'll be back for my revenge at Le Mans.”

“Héhé, we will see”, Spirou replied. “I'm eager to see how you guys progress, I really think you've got something in you. But I don't expect we'll have another fight for a win like last year.” Haru tilted his head. Did Spirou mean that, for all the nice things he was saying, he didn't think the Iwatobi Racing Team would have the chance to go for a win? The more experienced driver clarified.

“Every 24-hour race is different, and you seem to race different people every year. But you never know. If we do get to fight again, and you win... I don't know, maybe I would take up a swimming challenge against you or something. No, there's no point, you'd beat me easily... _Ah, merci, Gus_.” The drinks arrived, and, as he had done on the night these two had met, Haru found himself raising a toast with a mug.

“To your new season!”, Spirou proclaimed, as the recipients collided. “May it bring you success... Well, maybe not too much on the track, haha! But in the pool and your studies at least...” He took a sip of his beer, taking in mostly froth, before continuing the conversation. “By the way, what are you studying?”

“Business, basically”, Haru answered. “How to manage my career and stuff for after, but I have no idea for a plan. I just focus on swimming, with a little racing with my friends in between.”

“It's good that they make you think about your later life. You likely won't earn enough to be lazy. I've reported on a few sports people like that. Some start their own company, run a restaurant... and they do fine. In short, find something else you like and you're good at aside sports. Thinking back to those interviews I did, I'd also say don't forget to be young. That's very important for you as an aspiring athlete to remember to have fun, but it also goes for your friends. Enjoy yourselves while you're travelling, go out, go to concerts, throw parties, meet people... We used to do that before we got enrolled in a works team.” This didn't resonate for Haru. He was reserved and not a party animal. What Spirou alluded to next was even less his cup of tea.

“Meet some girls, too!”, he winked. “From what I know, talking to the ladies in the paddock, I'd say that you and the Samezuka team drivers are rather attractive. You may have a crush or three!”, Spirou concluded, amused. Haru tilted his head again. Someone had a crush on him, or one of his friends? He then remembered a particular moment from the previous season.

“That woman racing for Alfa Romeo?”, he asked. “She was a bit close to Makoto before the podium at Le Mans.”

“For Alfa...”, Spirou mumbled, before realising who that was. He burst out laughing. “Jessie?! Haha! No! She's just like that, she likes seeing strong men... But she's not after Makoto, oh no! He's safe from her! No, I'm talking about other, younger women. I'll say no more. Keep your eyes open at the Gala maybe. Well, I say that, but maybe you're not interested... or taken already?”

Haru shook his head, and snuck in a quick, mischievous “you?”, while looking directly at Spirou. The latter raised his shoulders and shook his head in turn.

“I've only managed short-term relationships”, he confessed. “With the job I've got, I'm travelling a lot, it's not easy for the person I'm with. Still, I have company, I've been living and working with Fantasio for... 12 years! Gosh, time flies! So yeah, you could say I'm a hardened bachelor, but I'm not lonely.”

Haru looked towards the window and thought to himself. He had no trouble imagining what the relationship between Spirou and Fantasio would be like. He guessed that it would be a lot like Makoto and himself: two men who knew absolutely everything about each other. He drew the parallels, and realised he was rather lonely in Tokyo. Makoto wasn't as near to him as he was in Iwatobi Town. Could he move in with Makoto?

Spirou broke Haru's trance and went to what he really wanted to say.

“Anyway, I knew you wouldn't resist coming back this year”, he claimed. Haru raised an eyebrow. “I know I might sound crazy again, but something happened at Le Mans last year, I didn't tell you back then.” Spirou closed his eyes – hoping Haru wouldn't have run away when he opened them again – as he recalled the last laps of the 24-hour race.

“It felt like I had no arms or legs left, the drink bottle was finished, and I got the message there were still two laps to go. It wasn't that the track was long; two more laps on any track feeling that tired, I just couldn't. I was losing my sharpness with my gearing and steering, I was forgetting to use the KERS, my feet weren't pressing the pedals as strong as before. I was continuing on a basic auto mode, with whatever force I had. The Count and Zorglub were pushing me, but I still felt on my limit. Then, along the Hunaudières, just after Fantasio shouted at me to hang on, the vision came. I saw you saying... “I won, I'm done”. That's when I decided there's no way you would catch up to me. No way you're coming here just this once! So I made sure I won.”

Spirou opened his eyes again. Haru was still there and didn't look too confused.

“I know, it's weird”, the red-haired racer continued, his smile never leaving his face. “I don't race just to keep people in the sport. But that's what pushed me on that last lap. I did a good last sector considering how shot I was.”

“And I hit traffic”, Haru remembered. “But did you see any animals in your vision?” Spirou was confused.

“No, why?”

“When I swam the relay with Makoto, Nagisa and Rei, I used to see animals. Usually marine animals. Or butterflies, because there's a butterfly swimming style. Yeah, it's a thin logic. Never mind, I was just curious what animals motor racers see.” Spirou looked up and took another gulp of his pint, trying to remember a specific moment when he'd seen an animal, but couldn't. He gave up and concluded.

“Anyway, that's what I nearly told you before the podium last year! I'm glad you've come back to race again. It's going to be a fun season, you'll see! And you'll be successful as long as you keep in mind that an endurance race is a challenge. Don't let even the four-hour stuff fool you, it's hard.”

 

On the way back to the circuit, Haru thought he'd be rude not to ask what Spirou had done in the off-season. “How about your winter?”

“Oh, not much, in comparison”, Spirou answered. “Taking care of the newspaper. There was that attack in Paris that hurt our profession, but we continue. Racing-wise, not a lot. I saw you tested at Tsukuba, well we didn't do much more: a couple of days at Zolder two weekends ago, to get back into the rhythm.”

“I thought works teams tested way more”, Haru commented.

“We did in the winter of 2013-2014”, Spirou replied. “We had to develop. Now we've got a solid car, we're sure it works. There's pressure on us to keep winning, and we know we can do it, but I don't expect the same success rate as last year.” Haru was surprised by this statement. From what he had seen the previous season, Spirou was a confident, conquering competitor, and there was no indication that either he, or his car, had suffered any setbacks. Haru again reasoned as if motor racing was like swimming: Spirou's form was surely good enough to bring back more results? But here, it was the modesty and wisdom gained through experience which were doing the talking.

“The others are going to speed up and come after us”, the Belgian explained further, “and the year after winning Le Mans is usually less successful anyway. We'll push and fight, and if we dip a bit this year, we can rise again in 2016. Who knows? We just take it race by race.”

Once they were back at the circuit, each returned to their motorhomes. Spirou found Fantasio in the Peugeot motorhome lounge on his laptop, preparing his pre-race column. For the newspaper that bore the ginger-haired man's name, the two drivers and their manager, Seccotine, also a journalist, alternated in writing reports from inside the team.

“See, I'm back in time!”, Spirou announced proudly, switching back to French. Fantasio smiled. He had bet that his friend would talk for ages. Usually, Fantasio was more of a chatterbox, but Spirou was also capable of keeping conversation going on a topic he was excited about. And, even with years of experience, he still got very excited about racing.

“I can't believe you take other drivers for a drink just to talk about your visions”, Fantasio joked. Spirou chuckled slightly as he sat opposite.

“Haru's an athlete”, Spirou replied, “he has his moments in the zone too. But the visions were just a pretext. I really wanted to get to know him a little. And he's interesting, with a bright future, I think.”

“Found yourself a target for a report, huh?”, Fantasio asked cheekily. Spirou grinned back.

“Only if I get an assignment on swimming, I guess”, he answered. “Speaking of which, what are you telling people in your column?”

“Oh, that we're excited to race at home, that we want to win but don't know where everyone is”, Fantasio summarised. “The usual stuff everyone wants to hear. It's not easy to write a good introduction before the first laps have been done.” Spirou laughed. He had done the task the year before, and it had been even harder because it was a season with new cars with unassessed performance levels. He remembered Fantasio had teased him, saying “how hard can it be?”

“You know, sometimes starting an article is harder than starting a race”, Spirou commented.

“Are you asking me to start on Sunday to compare?”, Fantasio laughed. Amused, Spirou lifted his shoulders and replied: “ _si tu veux,_ _mon vieux, c'est avec plaisir!_ ”


	4. Round 1 - Belgium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the racing sequence, 'Pininfarina' and 'Ferrari' designate the same car: a Pininfarina Sergio, based on a Ferrari 458 chassis and powered by a Ferrari V8. Just to clarify that in case it's confusing. As always, a track map will help for the corner names (see also the [onboard video](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/133939956436/to-go-with-the-new-chapter-of-faster-heres-a) on the blog).  
> And for better or for worse, the commentary narrative is back!

**Sunday 19 th April 2015**

**SPA PRE-RACE NOTEBOOK**

_Weather._ Rain is expected today in the form of typically Belgian, unpredictable showers. It should make the race tense and intriguing at the front, especially as dominant streaks have been broken in both classes: Spirou ended Ash Ketchum's string of 8 poles in consecutive entries, and the Looney Tunes Alpine inflicted Team Rocket Alfa Corse's first QP defeat since Laguna Seca last year.

 _Growing grid._ Two crews are making their X1 debut this weekend: a second works Digimon Cadillac for Koshiro/Tachikawa/Kido, and the H.I.V.E. Squad with their Pininfarina. More are on the way: Pending Race Tech say that they have found customers for their sleek, race-winning Veritas RS III. Who they are will be announced at the Nürburgring, where the Lamborghinis and the X2 Animaniacs Yamaha will return. Weasel Speedlab are also expecting to announce the date of their comeback around the German race.

 _Classification requirement._ As Spa is a race run to distance, the minimum driving requirement per driver is one quarter of the 1000 km, so 36 of the 143 laps. Crossing the finish line with all three drivers having completed 36 laps each is the only requirement for classification (as such cars will automatically have logged 75% of the winner's distance). If the race is stopped and cannot resume, all cars not retired at the time of the red flag will be classified. The conditions will be the same in two weeks time at the Nürburgring, and the new “quarter-race plus quarter-hour” rule will not apply until after Le Mans.

***

****SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS 1000 KM GRID & STARTING DRIVERS** **

Qualified: 30 (22 X1, 8 X2) / Start 12 midday local

 _Row 1_ \- 1. Spirou Peugeot #23 (Fantasio) / 2. Kanto VW #8 (Misty)

 _Row 2_ \- 3. Kanto VW #9 (Gary Oak) / 4. Hey Arnold Chrysler #16 (Gerald Johanssen)

...

 _Row 7_ \- 13. Iwatobi Chrysler #17 (Nagisa Hazuki) / 14. T-Rex Shelby #21 (Little Boss Graves)

 _Row 8_ \- 15. Samezuka Mazda #22 (Sosuke Yamazaki) / 16. Pataki Pininfarina #18 (Phoebe Heyerdahl)

...

 _Row 12_ \- 23. (1st X2) Looney Tunes Alpine #60 (Bugs Bunny) / 24. (2nd X2) Team Rocket Alfa #80 (James)

 _Row 13_ \- 25. (3rd X2) MGM Kia #52 (McWolf) / 26. (4th X2) Flintstone Volvo #64 (Barney Rubble)

***

As forecast, the weather was changeable on race day, and the warm-up lap got going a few minutes before midday in damp conditions. Having posted the fastest time of the car the day before, Sosuke got to kick off Samezuka's season, and he could tell the Mazda's wheels were spinning at some points of the greasy track when he accelerated. There was a little spray coming out from behind the cars ahead, but he was expecting visibility to be reasonable. Not as bad as Donington.

“Yamazaki, the first lap of the race will be behind the Safety Car”, Seijuro called on the radio. Race Control wanted to make sure that all the drivers had the measure of the treacherous conditions before letting them go.

“So SC is not in this lap?”, Sosuke asked back.

“Correct”, was the reply. “SC stays out for at least one more lap, but next time across the line will count as the start.”

“Ok, that's clear.”

_**START – A few cars change tyres.** The #21 T-Rex Shelby and the #24 Olive  & Tom Citroën seem to have gambled on slicks, but decide they aren't comfortable with their choice. The #75 Jetson Cadillac is changing their full wets for intermediates._

After the car ahead had pulled into the pits, Sosuke recognised a familiar pattern of brake lights through the light mist thrown up by the tyres of the car in front. He radioed Seijuro.

“Who's in the 17 again?”

“Hazuki.”

Sosuke suddenly felt uneasy, took a sip of drink and swallowed loudly. In the same slippery conditions, on an circuit with even faster corners, he was supposed to resume the fateful Donington duel. And he had no doubt that Nagisa knew who was behind him.

Seijuro managed to reduce Sosuke's anxiety by announcing that there would be yet another Safety Car lap after the one he was on. Moreover, as the race had officially begun, restart rules would be applied, so a single file start, less perillous than a side-by-side grid formation.

**_Lap 1/143 – One more SC lap._ ** _Race Control wants the cars that pitted on lap 1 to catch up with the queue, so we will get the green flag at the end of lap 2. No such mercy for the #36 Cadillac: Izzy Koshiro went off wide at Pouhon and has decided it's too wet for inters._

Sosuke concentrated on assessing the state of the track on the second lap of the race. Out of the complex at Les Combes, he noticed more spray being kicked up from Nagisa's rear wheels.

“It's raining again on the far side, Seijuro.”

“Understood. Don't hesitate to tell us if you think we need to switch to full wets.” After going through Pouhon and the Pif-Paf, Sosuke replied that intermediate tyres should be fine.

“Ok Yamazaki. Get ready to take the restart. No overtaking before the line, remember. Good luck.”

_**Lap 2/143 – THE 2015 AERS REALLY BEGINS NOW!** Fantasio gets the jump on the Volkswagens by accelerating out of Blanchimont and crosses the line with 1.3 seconds in hand. Not much movement behind as drivers know they can't pass into the Bus Stop. It seems to be raining all over the track at the moment._

“Ok Sosuke, let's see how this lap goes, then think about attacking”, Sosuke thought to himself as he turned into the tight hairpin at La Source. He gingerly followed the blue and white car of his rivals through Eau Rouge and up the Raidillon, then realised that he had lights close behind him. He positioned himself in the middle of the circuit to defend, only for his attention to be drawn by the suddenly denser mist forming ahead.

“Oh boy!”, he muttered, remembering that he'd noticed the extra moisture here earlier. He braked cautiously when he saw the 200-metre sign, and saw, in the same view, a pink and red car pull alongside. It was on the outside of the first part of Les Combes though, and left him the position. Sosuke assumed a normal line through the rest of the complex, and took care once again under braking downhill to the Bruxelles hairpin. He had to keep defending through the sweeping, twisty section of the track, and couldn't muster the concentration to radio Seijuro until he was done with Stavelot, and on the fast run up to Blanchimont.

“Who am I racing?”

“18 Ferrari and 30 Citroën right behind you.”

No sooner had he got the answer than the same car appeared on the inside of the Mazda at the final chicane. Sosuke had to give up the place.

“It must be damn hard to race with a roadster in this weather”, he thought to himself. But it wasn't bothering Phoebe Heyerdahl, the driver of the open-top number 18, who started hounding Nagisa. “I'll try to take advantage when it passes Hazuki”, Sosuke plotted. He found himself unable to though, as Phoebe simply outdragged the Chrysler on the Kemmel Straight after the Raidillon.

“Damn, the 18 just flew past the 17!”, Sosuke commented on the radio. “Iwatobi are supposed to have the more powerful car, right?” He didn't get an answer on that question. Instead, Seijuro reminded him to look out for Clover Enwing behind.

_**Lap 4/143 – The battles begin.** Gerald (#16 Chrysler) isn't thriving in these conditions, and Naruto Uzumaki (#7 McLaren) is in no mood to lose too much time to the VWs. Peter Perfect (#4 Veritas) has taken 7 th, Mandark (#3 Maybach) is 9th, and P. Heyerdahl (#18 Pininfarina) passed both swimming teams on that lap to move up to 13th._

The rain continued to come down in light amounts all around the circuit, but it was inconsistent, which made it difficult for Sosuke to judge whether he had a chance to pass Nagisa or not. Worse, he almost felt that he needed Nagisa ahead of him to be able to gauge what the grip levels were like in a corner, by observing the spray and language of the car.

_**Lap 5/143 – Heyerdahl wide at Pouhon.** The #18 Pininfarina rejoins behind the Iwatobi-Samezuka duel she had passed earlier, aswell as the Totally Spies Citroën. The rain is the heaviest it's been so far; if anyone started on full wets, it's a gamble that could pay off._

“I felt the car slide at the double-left”, Sosuke told Seijuro going into Stavelot. “Grip is precarious in places.”

“Full wets next lap?”, the tactician asked. Sosuke shook his head on the entry to Blanchimont, then remembered that no-one could see him and he had to give a verbal answer.

“If it's just that area, it's not worth it... I'm still close to Hazuki here. What tyres is he on?” Sosuke heard a word he didn't catch, followed by Seijuro chuckling.

“Well?”

“Matsuoka said 'Michelins'.”

“Haha, not funny, Rin”, Sosuke replied with a tense voice. Rin's idea of humour wasn't what he needed right now.

“Honestly, we don't know”, Seijuro continued. “Full wets seem to have an advantage right now, but it's close.”

**_Lap 6/143 – The VWs swap positions._ ** _After Uzumaki's pass on Gerald, Team Kanto are taking no chances, and the Suzuka antics aren't repeated: Misty lets Gary Oak through in a very civilised manner to see if the #9 has the pace to go against the Peugeot._

The rain stopped on the South side of the course, at Les Combes, Pouhon and Stavelot, and over the course of the next few laps, Sosuke found more confidence in his car's footing. He was starting to line up passes on Nagisa, but everytime, he was caught out by the Chrysler's position on the track. He began to get frustrated as he also felt the pressure from the car behind.

_**Lap 8/143 – X2 battle for the lead continues.** James (#80 Alfa) and McWolf (#52 Kia) look more incisive in the conditions than Bugs Bunny in the #50 Alpine, but neither have found a way by._

_**Lap 8/143 – That's the #60 Alpine in the previous text.** The commentary team is still getting used to the change of number celebrating the marque's 60 th anniversary._

On lap 10, he moved to the inside line on the Kemmel Straight, only for Nagisa to move there too. He thought to try around the outside again, even if he had backed out on the previous attempt, but he saw that red and pink Pininfarina Sergio alongside him, and just in time to avoid a high-speed touch! Hindered by Nagisa, Sosuke had no choice but to be out-braked by Phoebe, who looked set to take the position. Then, Nagisa didn't take the tightest line through the left turn of Les Combes, which left the door slightly open for the number 18 if she was brave enough to use all the kerb. She was, and she nudged Nagisa to the inside of the last right-hander of the complex. Boxed in, the Chrysler lost momentum and Phoebe gained another place by slinging past on the outside.

Sosuke tried to take advantage, but Nagisa was on the inside for the Bruxelles hairpin, and, to make matters worse, he still wasn't hugging the apex, which infuriated the Mazda driver.

“Hazuki's such a nuisance, he does this all the time!”, he shouted on the radio. “His lines make no sense, and he's just let one car pass both of us!”

_**Lap 10/143 – Phoebe Heyerdahl takes two at Les Combes!** The #18 Pininfarina regains 13 th by passing both Sosuke Yamazaki and Nagisa Hazuki in one forceful swoop at Les Combes! The Mazda has been trying to pass the Iwatobi Chrysler since the start, but hasn't made progress._

“We've seen it on the replay, Yamazaki”, Seijuro answered, trying to calm his driver down. “He's looking for water off the racing line because he's probably on full wets. Watch out for the 30 behind you too.”

“Well if anything happens, it won't be _my_ fault this time”, Sosuke warned. The words stunned Rin, who had been listening in from the start on the second headset. Sosuke was getting impatient again.

_**Lap 11/143 – Gap at the front stabilises.** The gap between Fantasio and Gary Oak came down to 6.8 seconds on lap 10, but the Volkswagens are now encountering X2 traffic._

Knowing why Nagisa was weak on half the track helped Sosuke a lot. He'd been trying to crack the problem the wrong way all along, thinking he was in a straight battle with Nagisa, and that his opponent was over-defending, but it turned out that wasn't the case. So Sosuke simply repeated the Ferrari's move from the previous lap, and came out of Les Combes ahead of the Chrysler, which had offered little resistance as its tyres, with more cuts in it than the intermediate Dunlops on the Mazda, inherently had less grip. Not so long ago, Samezuka had been doubting their tyre choice; now, surely, Iwatobi were doubting theirs.

While he'd made the pass though, a shower had blown in onto the North side of the track. Sosuke saw the darker mass of cloud ahead as he exited Stavelot, and drops came down on his windshield more frequently on the run through the Courbe Paul Frère. Pushing to gap Nagisa, he took the first apex of the near flat-out left-hander at Blanchimont over-confidently, and he was caught unawares by the lower grip levels. The car strayed far right, onto the slippery painted tarmac just off-track, and there was no coming back.

“Damn it! Holy craaap!”, was all Sosuke could say as he realised that his corrections via the steering wheel had no effect. Braking also had little effect, as he aquaplaned on the puddles.

As the screens showed the black and red car bouncing off the tyre wall, Rin gasped and pressed the button to speak to the driver.

“SOSUKE!”, he yelled. Seijuro covered his mouth in shock, and, in the garage, Ai stared in disbelief at the monitor he was watching with the mechanics.

**_Lap 12/143 – MAZDA IN THE WALL!_ ** _It's raining again at Blanchimont, and Sosuke Yamazaki has been caught out! It's a heavy hit, we hope he's ok, that car's race looks over. Safety Car is out, and we may see some anticipated fuel stops._

Every second of silence that went by felt like a minute to Rin, and every second of waiting raised his fears that this was Donington all over again. Thankfully, there were only about ten of them before Sosuke contacted the pits.

“Oh crap guys, I'm so sorry... I'm getting out to inspect.”

“We're relieved to hear you, Yamazaki, but I doubt we can continue”, Seijuro replied.

“But I'm right next to the pits! If I can just roll it back...” Of course, the pit crew could see that the front end was smashed and that there was no chance that the car would steer. Still, it reassured Rin that Sosuke was well, as he saw the tall man in the silver and black helmet extract himself from the cockpit without any help and walk around. A quick look at the car was all Sosuke needed to realise that Seijuro was right. With not even a tenth of the 1000 km completed, his team's race was over. And it _was_ his fault.


	5. Training Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of the third segment, and like I did when I published _Fast!_ , I've decided to get my ships sorted. While they all interact, the ships at the top will be the prominent ones, and more will be added.  
> Like in the first fic, I'll be writing some race coverage material. This time, it's an article that tells the story of the race from the winner's perspective, but it'll probably be different each time, and not normally as long as this one. The "Spirit of the Race" thing is done by Radio Le Mans at each race they cover; they are very much my inspiration for the commentary sequences.  
> Feel free to comment on and at any point if you like or don't like.
> 
> Buckle up folks, we've got a big Samezuka sequence coming up!  
> Blog content: [Sosuke's profile](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/134410437766/faster-5-and-yater-8-going-up-shortly-meanwhile).

**SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS 1000 KM - FINAL CLASSIFICATION**

Started: 30 (22 X1, 8 X2) / Classified: 24 (17 X1, 7 X2)

1\. Journal Spirou Peugeot Sport - #23 Peugeot Onyx - Spirou/Fantasio/Zorglub - 143 LAPS

2\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - +0'12"836

3\. Double-D Maserati Corse - #19 Maserati Birdcage 75 - Ed/Edd/Eddy - +0'16"410 (5 more cars on lead lap)

...

13\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 141 LAPS

...

17\. (1st X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - 133 LAPS

18\. (2nd X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - +0'09"443

19\. (3rd X2) Looney Tunes Alpine - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - +0'11"081

...

RET. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 11 LAPS

***

**ANALYSIS: HOW SPIROU PEUGEOT SPORT WON THE SPA 1000 KM**

_In this feature, AERS Radio's experts examine the tactical decisions that added up to victory in each class. For the first issue, here's a look into the strategy behind the Spirou Peugeot's seemingly straight-forward start to their season, ending up in exactly the same situation as they finished the last: winning X1 in the wet._

Of course, straight-forward does not mean easy, as showers meant the track conditions could be different from one lap to the next. Within the first two hours, there were moments when it looked like full wets were the tyres to have, only for the rain to recede or move. For the more confident crews, intermediates were ideal, and that's the way Peugeot went for Fantasio's opening double-stint of 49 laps. Behind him, Volkswagen had a split strategy with one car on inters and the other on wets. It would have been a masterstroke if the rain had been more constant, but, as it was, and despite having clearly learned their lesson from Suzuka last year, Team Kanto found itself ordering its cars to switch position at regular intervals, as neither was capable of challenging the leader. Fantasio was handed another breather when teams that had started on full wets, such as the #9 VW and the Team7 McLaren, switched to inters while he saved 20 seconds by keeping the same set.

Peugeot's second driver in was Zorglub, the man whose off in damp conditions cost the team a podium finish at Spa in 2014. Although arguably a stronger racer than 12 months ago, he opted to drive the bare minimum, 36 laps, and the final 58 tours would be shared between Spirou (double stint) and Fantasio (single). So after two long stints from the starting driver, the tactic for the last two thirds of the race was to rely on shorter runs. Expecting Zorglub to lose time while the rival squads played their trumps as a dry interlude began, Spirou's objective would be to push hard and regain the lead if lost, and Fantasio should then consolidate.

That said, short-fuelling meant that Zorglub could produce good average lap times, and the team gambled on sending him out on soft slick tyres for the second half of his run. “ _It was a huge risk if we misjudged the return of the rain_ ”, the driver-tactician confessed, “ _maybe a little unnecessary, but it was damn exciting! I could give everything for 15 laps, and I wasn't just a sitting duck like some expected me to be._ ” It certainly gave some panache to his stint as he fought off a challenge by the #8 VW. As he said, the danger was that, if the rain returned sooner rather than later, he'd be called in for a tyre change that would require him to stay in the car much longer in order to not lose a pit stop to the opposition.

As it was, the rain stayed away, and Spirou took over the leading car and put on medium tyres. The interesting feature here is that the driver was fresh, while other teams had spread the effort of the treacherous first hours between all three drivers, thus no-one could match the pace of the Belgian, who has been constantly producing excellent racing, arguably the best we've ever seen from him, since his run to victory at last year's TLM.

The rain returned shortly after he had completed 40 laps, and that was the signal for Fantasio to return to the cockpit. A late Safety Car levelled the field with 15 laps to go, which no-one had gambled on in terms of pit strategy due to the return of the rain. However, it could have led to a Donington-like situation in which the long-time leader might be overtaken in the dying moments. But Fantasio drove brilliantly to take Spirou Peugeot Sport's 14th AERS victory. He would have contributed nearly half the race by himself in the process, dominating in difficult conditions along the way. This was a highly noteworthy performance which earned him a nomination for “Spirit of the Race” by one of us – although the voting fans went for the #52 Kia and its drivers' spirited fight for a first class win. A successful bid we will take a close look at tomorrow!

 

***

**Wednesday 22 nd April 2015**

Having done his share of swimming, Sosuke watched Rin continue his. He could tell his childhood friend had got faster since high school. Of course (and unfortunately), the same could be said of Haruka. And then there was Seijuro. Sosuke had never watched his boss very closely, and it was clear to him that the older Mikoshiba was the most at ease. The brother was also keeping up: Momotaro had been scouted at Samezuka in his third year for his backstroke. The youngest of the four hadn't taken part in qualifying competitions for the World Championships yet, but everyone was adamant he'd succeed soon, especially if the versatile Seijuro kept his focus off backstroke.

Sosuke moved closer to the pool, where Makoto and Rei were standing with stopwatches. There, he heard a shout from the far lane.

“Hey, Sou-chan! Take Rei-chan's place so he can come in with us!”

“Aren't you supposed to be following the other two, Nagisa-kun?”, Rei asked seriously, while scribbling Rin and Seijuro's latest times on his notepad.

“Don't worry, Ai-chan's got this”, Nagisa replied, referring to Ai and himself giving Gou some tips to improve her swimming, before getting out of the pool. Like his three friends, he was wearing the same jammers as in high school. For Sosuke, it was a throw back in time, back when he had his seat on Rin's team. He felt slightly in the wrong place, because everyone around him were Iwatobi swimmers!

Once Nagisa arrived next to the timekeepers, he passed comment about the four athletes' pace.

“TWO MORE!”, Makoto shouted, interrupting briefly.

“This joint practice was a cool idea”, Nagisa added. “Kind of reminds me of the cherry blossom bath Samezuka did for us at the end of our second year. Speaking of joint stuff, can we do a go-kart challenge before the Nürburgring?”

“There's not much point, Nagisa-kun”, Rei answered. “We have that time trial with everybody, remember?”

“Yeah, but I like it when it's just us. Right, Sou-chan?”, Nagisa winked. Sosuke didn't respond. All his battles with Nagisa had left him in a bad mood, so how could he be glad at the prospect?

“Anyway, Rei-chan, how about you swim with me a little?”, the pestering blond insisted.

“Sure, I'll take the next stint”, Sosuke intervened. That was a yes for Nagisa, so he just cheered briefly before diving back in. Rei was too concentrated on writing numbers down to react. Rin and Momo had finished, and Rei was calculating each individual leg time while they caught their breath. After a short moment, he did speak to Sosuke.

“You don't have to, you know, Sosuke-san, I don't mind.”

“Go on, hand me the kit”, was the reply. “You've been doing this for a while, I'm sure you're itching to swim again.”

“Well, you're not wrong there”, Rei smiled, as he finished his subtractions, just in time as his swimmers got out to analyse their performance. Rei got approval from Sosuke and the swimmers to leave them to it straight away, so he picked up his cap and goggles and dived in to the sound of “yay! Rei-chan!” coming from the middle of the pool.

After a five-minute pause, the athletes faced their next training challenge: a 100m dash, in which Rin beat Haru. The Mikoshibas lagged behind because they swam their preferred styles, butterfly for Seijuro and backstroke for Momotaro. From an adjacent lane, Nagisa and Ai looked on in admiration, before getting back to the task of improving both Iwatobi managers' breaststroke. The big guns had another break before doing their cooling down series. These were timed, as they had regularity targets, but it wouldn't be as hectic as any other stint so far. They could relax after that. While they swam 500 more metres, their timekeepers caught up with each other about their motor racing programmes.

“By the way, congrats on finishing Spa”, Sosuke said. “It wasn't easy out there.”

“Thanks”, Makoto replied. “It was disappointing that the conditions weren't good for us to give it our very best.”

“In particular Nagisa, right?”, a concerned Sosuke asked. The returning driver had done just over the legal minimum, 37 laps, at the start of the race, and didn't reappear in the car afterwards.

“Mentally, the beginning wore him out”, Makoto replied, honestly. Sosuke gulped. Makoto reassured that Nagisa wasn't uneasy due to what had happened at Donington the previous year. “I don't think it was a fear of another crash”, he said, “although he did decide to be safe in the rain and take on full wets, which weren't the best tyres. As a result, he had a hard time managing them. He just ended up exhausted. We were all ok to let him start on his comeback, but in hindsight, we should have waited to see if the weather improved and give him an easier run. I'm sure that at the next dry race, we'll see what he's got.” After a pause, Makoto commiserated on Samezuka's race.

“I made a mistake”, Sosuke replied, quickly. He didn't really want to say much about it. “I'll make it up to the team next week.” Makoto smiled, comforted that his rival's confidence was seemingly intact. “Keep your eye on the guys”, Sosuke reminded Makoto, before shouting at Momo to tell him to speed up a little.

 

The four main swimmers later did their debrief with Sosuke, who relieved Makoto of his duties, as he had been supervising the training for the start and also wanted to swim. After a snack, the working half joined the playing half, the latter continuing to splash about while the former floated around and relaxed.

For Rin, it was the calm before the storm. He had promised his team bosses he'd break some troublesome news to Ai and Sosuke that evening. He walked them out to dinner in Aachen city centre, and it was on the way back that he made the announcement. Stopping in front of the theatre, he started to tense up, imagining how they were going to react, and he was ready for some bad moods.

“Guys, I...”, he began, hesitantly. “I don't think there's an easy way to say this... The team wants to give Momo more running this year. In particular, some competitive running, which means... that you're going to be asked to sit out a race each.” Sosuke and Ai were shocked, Rin could tell and he felt for them. He recalled how Seijuro had once told him, by showing him the entry list, that he'd been ultimately left out of the relay team, and remembered the effect it had had on his confidence the next day. Even if he hadn't found a way to make it sound good, he at least hoped he'd shown more tact than his then, and present, manager.

“And you too, Rin-senpai?”, Ai asked. Rin shook his head in guilt. This was the worst detail for him.

“The team will use two races to try different combinations, and I'm in both of them”, Rin confessed. “It's not my decision, I'm sorry.”

“You're sorry, huh?”, Sosuke jabbed. Rin expected his most ancient friend to be angry. “I haven't even had the chance to show that I'm better than my mistake in Spa, and I'm already being sidelined?”

“That's not quite true”, Rin replied. “We've put you down to miss Laguna, so you have the next race.” The red-haired driver's eyes then met his junior colleague's. They showed Nitori was still taking in the news, yet Rin had to tell him what was planned. “Ai, I'm afraid you'll only be taking part in practice next week. The idea is that we race together again in Brazil before going to Le Mans.”

“But what if Momo-kun really convinces the team?”, Ai asked, guessing correctly that he was to be replaced for being slower than Momo at Tsukuba and in practice at Spa, and rather resiliently accepting his fate. “Is it the fastest three that will race at Le Mans?”

“No, I promise that it's us three at the 24”, Rin guaranteed.

“That doesn't make sense!”, Sosuke protested, raising his voice. “If we're safe for Le Mans, why aren't we getting more driving time _together_? If it's qualifying for Mikoshiba's ultimate team in 2016 that we'll be doing, why can't that wait? Why this pressure before Le Mans?” Rin could not deny that Sosuke had a point. He remained pained and silent until he suggested that the trio continue walking to channel their frustration. Along the way, he insisted that the two shouldn't hold a grudge against either of the Mikoshiba brothers. The team of managers, of which Seijuro was a member, took the decision in conjunction with the manufacturer, who was a little disappointed at the results of its AERS programme thus far, and wanted it to be more ambitious. Using the fastest drivers available was one way to turn the squad's fortunes around. And no-one could fault Momotaro for doing his best in the car when he was given the chance.

That last point was particularly important for Aiichiro, who always shared a bedroom with the reserve driver. When the three returned to the hotel, Sosuke retired to his room to mull on his fate, while Rin and Ai talked some more in the lobby, before the latter saw Momo again.

“I know what I have to do”, the younger driver stated. “I don't know if I can do it.” Rin knew that the grey-haired boy looked up to him immensely, and that advice and encouragement from him would mean a lot.

“Speed isn't all there is”, he said. “You're not as fast, but you work harder than anyone on the details when it comes to set-up. You're always in the garage talking to the engineers and mechanics, while Sosuke and I are more often on pit wall, and the technical team appreciates that. Sure, it will help you if you improve your speed, but don't weaken what makes you valuable in the process.”

Ai's face still showed emotion. Rin was right about his strong point, although he didn't believe that catching up with Momo was as optional as his _senpai_ had made it sound. He held back, as he always did in his reserved manner, in total contrast to what Rin would do. The older of the two noticed it, and reminded him of what happened at the Regionals the year he returned to Japan. With one hand on Aiichiro's shoulder, a rare gesture, Rin made sure that his team-mate felt supported.

“You saw me when I was dropped from the team, and I hit rock bottom. You tried to reason with me, but I wasn't reasonable at that time. I still remember that you tried, so now I'm here for you if you need anything.”

“ _Hai_.”


	6. A special day in Nürburg

**Tuesday 28 th-Wednesday 29th April 2015**

The four younger drivers from Iwatobi and Samezuka had been out together to shop for clothes before. Swimsuits, of course, at the beginning of the school year after their seniors left. That time, Nagisa teased the others to get them to try on a very thin piece, but the fact that “no suit will display your legs more optimally than this!” didn't convince Rei. The notion that “girls dig this style (after all, some of them wear this kind of stuff)” worked on Momo though, and Ai was too embarrassed to look!

“Haha, good times”, Nagisa giggled, even if he was the only one. The others frowned at him as he recalled the moment while judging how he looked in the mostly white costume he wanted to rent in a mirror. “What do you think, Rei-chan?”

“I'm not that much into white, as you know”, Rei replied while adjusting his tie. “It feels like a more elegant version of your old high school uniform though, so it suits you.”

“The red glasses don't quite go with the rest, Rei-kun”, Ai interrupted to observe.

“That's no problem, I'll use contact lenses”, he answered. He didn't really like those, but they were handy on occasions like this when beauty was paramount. Rei had gone for a dark jacket, with an indigo shirt. He would have preferred some shade of purple, but something closer to blue would be more harmonious with his hair.

Aiichiro was even more classic, and none of the others were randomly surprised by his appearance – they had seen him dressed as a butler at the school festival during his last year at Samezuka.

Brown was the way to go for Momotaro, with a similar beige waistcoat to Nagisa, and an orange bow-tie. His hair looked out of place, he thought, but it would be styled differently for the formal banquet on the next evening. Seeing Nagisa mess with his own hair made him ponder how different everyone was going to look. For a start, his team-mates Rin and Sosuke had chosen their suits at an earlier appointment in the boutique, and then there was Gou-san.

That very evening, Momo amassed enough courage to ask Rin if he'd be allowed to escort his sister to the dinner.

“I'm afraid it's sorted, Momo”, Rin replied. “She wants to walk in with me.”

“Fair enough if she wants to go with her brother”, Momo thought. His crush had faded as he hadn't seen Gou much in his final year of high school, though he couldn't deny she still had some effect on him. “Maybe she'll accept to dance, that would be nice.” 

***

To give all the drivers time to dress for the Gala, the day on the German track started very early, with a briefing and reconnaissance shortly after sunrise. Each team had a car, the same BMW 125i M hatchback that they would use in anger later, to drive once around the circuit. Unlike the Mazdas used at the Iwatobi Motor Fest, these were unmodified street cars, with no seats taken out, and the sighting lap would involve all the pilots from a team taking turns to drive. There were designated areas to pull off and change driver, so no-one would have a full practice lap, unless somebody selfishly refused to hand over, but that sort of behaviour certainly wouldn't do a team's atmosphere much good... One by one, the crews set out to discover the course.

For most AERS competitors, this was the first time they would attack the big Nürburgring loop – the fearsome 26-kilometre (just under twice the length of the Le Mans track), 170-turn Gesamtstrecke that combined the current circuit, which the weekend's 1000 km race would be held on, and the monstruous Nordschleife, which hosted the German Grand Prix back in the 70s, that undulated and weaved through the Eifel mountains –, and there was a gentlemen's agreement that no-one would prepare intensively by driving it beforehand (the Nordschleife is accessible to the public most of the year), so the time trial was expected to be open and unpredictable; no-one had a clue who could possibly win, though at the end, the fastest driver would have earned little more than a round of applause. This was a simple, fun race to bring everyone together. “A driving day for the drivers” was the concept when it had first been launched only five years earlier, and true to that, the media wasn't allowed to encroach on proceedings. The sparse audience wouldn't be invited to meet the stars either, there was the Saturday afternoon autographs and pitwalk for that. 

At Samezuka, all four drivers had watched onboard videos on the Internet, and played the track on a computer game. They still weren't prepared for the Nordschleife experience. While the GP-Strecke was a modern facility, with lots of width and run-off, they noticed they had entered a different world when Sosuke turned left after the last chicane of the “normal” course. The run-off was gone. The grass verge was wide enough to park a broken-down car on the wayside, but that was it – beyond that, it was armco barriers and the forest. The road was narrower, the tarmac horrendously bumpier, covered in graffiti from fans, and nothing was perfectly straight or flat. The amount of blind apexes and crests was making Ai nervous, but Momo was loving it: a real roller-coaster of a circuit!

Just after the Aremberg hairpin was the first point where a driver change slot was put. Marshals made cars that weren't performing a swap there slow down and pass the corner at a safe speed, so as not to endanger the ones that had stopped. Aiichiro took the wheel, and, needless to say, the style was different. It was clear that Nitori's hair would get even greyer if he drove a sportscar around here! Out of Kallenhard, Rin warned of a faster car behind. Amazingly, no-one was being distracted by the stunning views of the mountains!

Momo was next, taking the car from Exmühle to Hohe Acht. Again, a different likeness for the circuit on the part of the driver led to different sensations for the passengers, and Rin warned him a couple of times that he had to bring the car back in one piece! But the young Mikoshiba was having a whale of a time, especially as his allotted sector included the Karussel, a heavily banked, concrete surface hairpin. Ai reckoned he might have been sick if Momo's stint had lasted longer. Definitely, he preferred smooth tracks with good visibility! Instead, he was being jostled around in the back seat, and having a hard time seeing what was coming up, as a large number 22 had been stuck on the right-hand side of the windscreen.

Rin took the final segment. The last of the twisty bits included a small version of the Karussel, before the two-kilometre Döttinger Höhe straight. Sosuke noticed that Nürburg Castle was visible (the first time anyone in the car had paid attention to the scenery!) as Rin sped towards the final esses. The grandstands and pit building appeared. It felt like coming back to civilisation, like getting back into bed after a week of camping. The red BMW was carefully driven into its slot on the pit straight, where it would wait to be called up for the main action.

Getting out of the car, the four boys noticed that on a lot of drivers' faces were expressions of astonishment, and quite a lot of laughing. These guys had loudy applauded the idea when it was announced, and it was clear to the youngsters from Japan why that was: their more experienced colleagues knew this was an insanely challenging track, one they had been looking forward to tackling. Ai looked over at the Iwatobi drivers. Nagisa was beaming, while Rei looked pale. It brought a smile back to his face when he thought of the parallel with Momo and himself.

He had a little time to get over the shock, as the small public announcement side of the event would take place before the individual time trial began. The big news everyone was expecting was works involvement from BMW, given that they were supplying the cars for the Gala, and that's what they got: the German manufacturer intended to put up an X2 challenge for 2016, although with no contracted team to speak of yet. Until then, BMW was going to help optimise the engine for the Veritas RS III. This was welcome news for Peter Perfect Racing and its two customers which would debut at the next race in America.

 

The competition finally could get under way. Just over 30 teams were taking part, and the drivers would be sent off one by one, at thirty-second intervals, for one timed lap. To make life simple, it was decided to send the cars out in inverse numerical order, meaning the crew that wore #1 in the previous season would go last. The marshals and mechanics would have to manage the space on the pit straight to make proceedings flowing and efficient, and the cars would cycle through a total of three or four times depending on the number of registered participants in each squad, as team principals and reserve drivers were also invited to try their hand.

Having driven only in testing and practice so far, Momotaro was one of these “extras”, and he would have to be part of the first cycle, before the regular drivers had their turn. It was supposed to be a disadvantage, because these early pilots had to make sure they took care of the car; the other three depended on it. This didn't stop Momo from eagerly anticipating his timed lap. He had a good feel for the track and wasn't planning on going slowly. His excitement rose when a marshal told him to start the engine and pull forward, and it built further when he saw the black BMW ahead pull away. This was Seccotine, the Spirou Peugeot team's manager. Momo didn't expect to be fast enough to see her again. His brother's arm appeared in his line of sight. Momo returned a thumbs up, and a little anxiety crept in.

“I mustn't do anything stupid”, he mumbled to himself, remembering the awful start he'd made at the Street Race. He put the car in gear and pushed down the handbrake. Seijuro counted down the seconds with his raised hand, while he held a stopwatch in the other. 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!

The engine roared and the rear wheels spun as Momo made a noisy start. Seijuro winced. The others would be worrying about what state they'd find the tyres in when – if – their turn came! If they could see the way Momo was driving, they would have worried about the brakes too...

Because he was told he had to be careful, Momo was making his corner speeds safe, while accelerating hard on turn exits, and braking early and strongly before the bends. Still a rough diamond in the eye of his older brother (and not just as a driver), he was using a stop-start approach with no nuance at all. It had worked at Iwatobi Town, but he quickly saw he'd be limited if he stuck to that on the Nordschleife, which had a great deal of medium-speed corners.

Yet he wasn't concerned about the time he was losing. He was enjoying the flat-out kinks such as Schwedenkreuz and Fuchsröhre. He let loose a little more when he reached Bergwerk, the first corner he had driven on the sighting lap. Without Rin next to him telling him to take it gently, he started grinning and cackling quietly as he merely lifted his foot from the throttle through the fast left-handers that led towards the Klostertal-Karussel complex. The sensation of speed due to the closeness of the greenery was tremendous. Beyond Hohe Acht, it was back to rather unchartered territory again, and the extreme bumpiness of the track meant he didn't find a moment to check his mirrors until Pflanzgarten. He was glad to see no-one had caught up to the point they'd have visual contact with him, and he soldiered on to finish the lap.

Back on the pit straight, he got out quickly to let Aiichiro take over. Nagisa ran up to him to ask him how it felt to complete a lap alone. The ginger-haired boy's facial expression said it all: Momo was elated.

“It was awesome!”, he shouted. “I wish we could race more on this track!” Despite its length, and requiring just under 12 minutes to complete for these Nordschleife novices in these road cars, one lap was clearly not enough! 

***

The hair made quite a difference to what Momo looked like in his suit.

“There, more lady magnet, less mad professor!”, Seijuro said after doing some detail combing for his younger sibling. Ai laughed, but Momotaro wasn't pleased. Seijuro was always teasing him about girls, and knowing his sibling would be watching that evening kind of washed down his confidence to ask one to dance. He was also slightly regretting his decision to walk into the dining hall with his brother and future sister-in-law; Seijuro joked again about how this was a “family outing”.

The older Mikoshiba's fiancée knocked on the hotel room doorn, and Seijuro called out that it was ok to enter. Wearing a splendid dark blue dress that matched her long hair, Sadako was followed in by the much taller Sosuke. They said that Rin was on the move, he had to go to Iwatobi's hotel to pick up Gou. Once the final touches were done on the remaining boys' style, they, in turn, were in a taxi to the Gala venue.

 

A short queue of saloons and people carriers was lined up at the main entrance of the hotel where the dinner was taking place. A valet came up and told them that they were all drivers arriving. An official photographer was at the door, so they were expected to pose for the yearbook, but no press or PR: just walk in and present their AERS badges at the reception. Ai double-checked that he had his. Despite the procedure being light, he was nervous about it. The taxi moved along a few metres every minute or so, until, finally, it was level with the porch. The Mikoshiba brothers and Sadako got out first.

“Wow, we have a red carpet!”, Momo shouted in amazement. Seijuro put one arm over his shoulder and the other around his fiancée's waist, and pushed them gently towards the door, all three smiling at the photographer on the way in. They turned around in the lobby to see Sosuke and Ai follow. They had picked virtually identical suits, just in very different sizes. They dropped their badges off at the desk, and the woman there said “oh my, all these Japanese names... I hope I get them right!”, before directing them to the dining hall. The five understood what she meant when they heard her announce their names on a speaker system as they went in, like a butler would.

“Posh...”, Sosuke commented. It wasn't just the arrival announcement: the huge room was elegantly decorated, lots of red (curtains, tablecloths), and very comfortable-looking chairs. Only Ai wasn't surveying the décor; he had found the room plan.

“Iwatobi and Samezuka are on three tables; we're a little mixed up”, he said.

“Probably because Rin and Gou-kun are coming in together”, Seijuro observed. A man with an Italian accent came up to them at that point, and bid them welcome to “your evening”. The team manager thanked him, and invited everyone to move forward, out of the doorway, as more names were announced.

“Who was that?”, Momo dared whisper to his brother.

“The chief organiser of the Series”, he replied, as the five headed towards their table. They were astounded at how different people they were used to seeing in overalls looked in evening dress. A pianist playing in the background contributed to the cosy, laid-back feel.

After a short while, the Iwatobi drivers arrived at the tables where the Samezukas were waiting. Nagisa with tidy hair and Rei and Makoto with a parting on the side were quite a sight, but Haru sported an even more unusual look with his hair combed back. His dress was distinct aswell: open jacket and no tie. Sosuke queried if it was suitable.

“I checked the dress code three times”, Rei answered, bringing his hand up to his glasses that weren't there. For a split second, he had to get over the surprise of finding nothing on his nose, before finishing: “no incompatibility.”

The Matsuokas were next. Rin wore black trousers and jacket, a light grey waistcoat and a light pink shirt with a red tie. His hair was combed straight back, covering the rear of his neck. Gou, meanwhile, made several jaws drop. Apart from Sadako who had gone to pick the garments with her, no-one knew what she had planned to wear. She was absolutely stunning in her red dress. Her hairdo was the most elaborate she had ever done. Seijuro had to hold back his admiration – his wife-to-be wasn't far –, while Momo's face went as red as the dress. Sosuke managed to keep a neutral expression, but only just. Ai got hot under the collar, and whispered to Nagisa “aren't you, um... mesmerised by Gou-san?” The blond boy chuckled.

“She sure is pretty, but we know what she's like underneath.” When Ai raised his eyebrows, Nagisa knew he had to rephrase. “Whoa, I did _not_ mean that! I meant, we've seen her angry! She's not always as kind as she looks! Haha!” Gou wondered what the commotion was about. Ai and Nagisa's cheeks flushed as they made an embarrassed, simultaneous “nothing!” reply.

Moments after the last guests arrived, the Series CEO took the stage to deliver the opening address. He commended the drivers for putting on some fantastic racing in 2014 despite the technical overhaul. He then directed his look at a table near the stage.

“This Gala, we have a special circumstance to celebrate on top of an extremely exciting season. After a third victory in the race, a team is in the position to keep the Toon Le Mans trophy. So the organisers would like to do a formal prize-giving tonight. Would the members of the Journal Spirou Peugeot Sport team please come up here?” While Spirou, Spip, Fantasio, Zorglub, Seccotine and the Count of Champignac went up to the stage, so did four men carrying the very large piece of silverware on the other side. After wishing everyone the best for the 2015 season, the boss made the official handover. The drivers largely gave their rivals a standing ovation while they shook hands and received the prize. Of course, even if it was exceptional, this ceremony hadn't caught them off guard, and the man who had crossed the line to win the trophy, Spirou, had prepared a brief speech, which he hurried through as waiters began serving the starters.

“Of course, for our team, to be allowed to keep this trophy is a huge honour. It will look great in the newspaper lobby, and I'm sure we will take good care of it. Because every time Fantasio makes a bad joke,... I will make him dust it!”

 

After the dinner, the room was cleared in part to make room for a dance floor. Haru wasn't much of a music man, but he went along with the others so he wasn't sitting alone. At one point, Makoto asked why he seemed to be looking around anxiously. Haru moved closer to his friend and bashfully confessed: “Spirou told me that some girl drivers like us. I'm looking out... But it's just that... I wouldn't know what to do if one came up.” Makoto laughed, but also understood, he was rather shy too.

“Just relax, chat and enjoy the dance!”, he replied. “They'll just want to spend a little time to get to know you, nothing more. It's not like it could go anywhere when we'll be racing against each other on Sunday...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, I'm back on _FastER!_ after finishing _YATER_! The blog has [an onboard](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/135595005946/as-a-teaser-for-the-next-chapter-of-faster) of the spectacular Nordschleife, it's an atypical track, worth a look.


	7. Round 2 - Germany

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a rather large chapter which tells the German race through Momo's eyes. How will he manage his competitive debut?  
> At the end, Makoto files a column for Iwatobi Town's local paper, 'cos hey, Iwatobi is also in this! XD

****NURBURGRING 1000 KM QUALIFYING PRACTICE** **

Qualified: 32 (24 X1, 8 X2)

1\. Hey Arnold! Chrysler Racing - #16 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - Arnold/Gerald/Sid - 1'45"442

2\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - 1'45"791

3\. Journal Spirou Peugeot Sport - #23 Peugeot Onyx - Spirou/Fantasio/Zorglub - 1'45"883

...

11\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 1'47"196

19\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/M.Mikoshiba - 1'48"143

...

25\. (1st X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - 1'53"912

26\. (2nd X2) Looney Tunes Alpine - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 1'54"148

27\. (3rd X2) Team Flintstone - #64 Volvo Concept Coupe - F.Flintstone/W.Flintstone/B.Rubble - 1'54"730

 

Seijuro was unhappy with his drivers on Saturday evening. Qualifying hadn't gone well, and the Mazda was once again towards the back.

“There are no excuses”, the manager berated in the motorhome. “You can't say it's because the track is new to you: Iwatobi qualified 11th, and we've been level with them until recently! The car is running soundly, you've got full power, and you two each had a go on the soft tyres”, he said, pointing at Rin and Sosuke. Ai sat silently while the others stood. As planned, he had only been allowed in the car for half an hour in first free practice before having to sit the rest out. He felt half concerned by what Seijuro was saying: not directly involved in this particular session, he was still most likely the slowest of the four, and had to up his game the next time he took the wheel. Seijuro's words emphasised that.

“I thought the message had been clear when we decided this rotation: there's four of you, and three places on the relay. As far as I'm concerned, _'t_ _he fast ones win_ _'_ is the rule, like when I was captain of the swim team. I don't know if the factory will go along the same lines, but my vote will go to those who drive the wheels of this damn thing!”

***

**Sunday 3 rd May 2015**

In reaction to the previous day's reproach, Rin took the start of the Nürburgring race with a clear objective: pass as many cars as possible. He was short-fuelled to help him achieve that, and he overtook three cars in the first twenty minutes. Equally impressive was the returning Team Titans Lamborghini, so it was on the number 18 Pininfarina that Rin stumbled next. Despite the speed advantage, there was a gap in racecraft between himself and Helga Pataki, who had a reputation for being a terrier when it came to defending a position. Rin was unable to find an opening, but he was learning a few tricks. Still, Seijuro decided to make him stop early for fuel. Samezuka hoped to gain when their adversary would make a longer stop.

Because he was expected to push hard, Rin was given a first run of just 43 laps, short of the minimum required for each driver at this race which was 49. Momo and Sosuke would then do their part, going for around 55 laps each, then Rin would get back in. Seijuro had decided that the last stint was potentially anyone's: depending on what the situation was and how well the boys had done, either Rin would stay in to the end, or Sosuke or Momotaro could be called back into action. With the run to the chequered flag presented as a potential reward, everyone was out to impress the managers, and Momo was particularly eager to get in and do his best. But Rin had thus far produced a convincing performance. For Momo's first competitive run, also the first that would last longer than an hour, the task of doing something comparable was daunting. Having to fight for position was nonetheless an exciting prospect for him.

“ _Nii-chan_ , if I make up more places than Rin-senpai, do I get to do the finish?”, he asked his brother in his most motivated voice, when his turn was only a few laps away.

“I don't think you'll do more overtaking than him, Momo”, Seijuro remarked. “Matsuoka had the start, now the field is more spread out. I'd rather you focus on _not losing_ any places rather than gaining them. Concentrate mostly on not messing up in the traffic and preserving the car, that's what matters at this stage. There will still be half the race to go when you're done.”

 

With his assignment set, Momotaro walked into the garage to fetch his helmet and gloves. His eyes met Aiichiro's. While the mechanics began to stir around him in preparation for the impending pit stop, the grey-haired boy sat in silence with his arms crossed. The feeling of being left out was most intense during the sessions in which he was inactive, but he managed to maintain an impassive expression. His room-mate could only wonder what was going through his mind. Momo turned his back to him and put on his helmet; he couldn't tell whether or not he could feel Ai's gaze on him as he did. Whichever way, he had to get that odd look out of his mind. Moments later, he was strapped into the black prototype and let loose for his AERS debut.

After a couple of laps to get the tyres up to temperature and a little traffic management, Momo needed something to aim for. After all, he had been thrown into the middle of a race, so where were his opponents?

“Can't tell you until the pit stops have cycled through, really”, his brother told him. “Rin did very short stints. It'll be another 10 laps or so before we know where we are. Go into mode 3 to stretch the fuel a little.”

This wasn't the answer the driver had hoped for. His goal was to not lose a position without knowing where the people he was fighting for position with were, and what kind of pace they were doing. He was on a heavier fuel load than them now, but he would be lighter once they had filled up. Then again, he was on new tyres in excellent condition now, while everyone else's sets were around 90 minutes old. His targets were invisible to him, on different strategies, and lap time comparisons seemed irrelevant. It was confusing and stressful for Momo. But an indication did come through from Seijuro.

“You need to get under 1'53 as often as possible. Should be feasible whenever you have no backmarkers to deal with.”

This was within Momo's abilities, he had done it in practice, and it was something he could keep track of on the luminous pit board every time he drove on the start-finish straight, albeit the information would be one lap old when he got it. Nonetheless, it allowed him to concentrate on his technique, like the very first day he drove the Furai. For another half-dozen laps, he stuck with that feeling he had at the Mine Circuit seven months earlier and applied himself. The big difference was that he could ask about his progress.

 

“Pit stops beginning for the others.”

When this radio message came through, it made Momo excited. Finally, he was going to be in a direct fight!

“I'll let you know who you're racing, even so be sensible”, Seijuro then anticipated. “You still have 15 laps on this tank and another stint after that!”

Over the next few laps, Momo paid some attention to the cars coming out of pit lane. When he crossed the main timing line after receiving those messages, he looked in his mirrors to see if he had potentially passed someone who was coming out of the pits, only to miss his braking point at the tight, slow first corner. No harm done, he only ran wide, but his tactician had seen it and issued a warning. “Don't get over-excited, Momo!”

The next time around, a pink and red car exited pit road comfortably in front of him. The Pataki Ferrari had got back ahead.

“That's the 18, you are racing it. Don't make a big fuss of it though, it was difficult for Rin earlier.” But the younger Mikoshiba wondered how many more cars would succeed in over-cutting him, and he worried that he hadn't done a good enough job.

The next laps put that anxiety to rest: no other team had passed him, although it was a close affair with the number 21 Shelby. Momo might have to defend rather than attack for position. But the number 30 Citroën was also there, and kept the American car busy. There was more good news when Seijuro announced that one particular team had encountered trouble during their pit stop.

“Wheel nut issue for Iwatobi, we are back to P15! Keep aiming for the 1'52s, Momo!” The driver acknowledged and obeyed: he remained focused on his driving, only checking his mirrors at times to make sure he was clear of his rivals behind. He lost time in traffic though, as he was less experienced than his pursuers when it came to dodging slower cars. But just as it looked as if he was going to have to take a defensive stance against the Shelby, that car spun, letting Momo off the hook. All in all, it was an enjoyable stint, and that kept adrenaline flowing.

The Mazda stopped for fuel in 14th place, a position gained when one of the Fords encountered a turbo problem. Momotaro went through the process a second time: get near times of 1 minute and 52 seconds promptly, and wait for the others to cycle through their stops. At one point, he noticed the works Chrysler come out of the pits ahead of him.

“Was the 16 delayed too?”, he asked.

“No, that car has just put us a lap down. Be wary, blue flags might be for you.” Pit wall's answer damped the driver's excitement somewhat. Although Samezuka never expected to stay close to the front, it was a disappointment for Momo that the lead lap was lost during his run. Maybe he wasn't doing such a good job after all? He shook his head; there was no way he could think things like that while he was still at the wheel. He had to get back to controlling the car, and _che sarà sarà_....

 

It turned out to be very positive for him. He hadn't made any overtakes, but conscious driving combined with problems for a few teams ahead meant that he had made a net position gain over the course of 56 laps. He was satisfied, but also rather tired when he got out. He needed to rest for a while, and who knows, maybe he would be called up for the finish! He put his helmet in its pigeon hole, before noticing that Aiichiro was still sitting in a chair in the opposite corner of the garage. He paused and looked in his direction. Ai looked back at him. He wasn't showing any real emotion, but calmly gave his friend a thumbs up. Momo relaxed and smiled as he left out the back of the box.

At this stage, Sosuke was in the car. The good news for him was that the race would remain dry, and he successfully got to the end of his double stint. Throughout the first half, he was wary of the progress the Iwatobi Chrysler could make with Haru at the wheel, but that car was delayed again by a brake change. With their car interestingly spared from mechanical gremlins, the Samezuka team had continued to rise up the order to just inside the top 10, although a lack of accidents meant that the fastest teams had stretched their legs, and put the Mazda two laps down on pace alone. Rin re-took the wheel planning to consolidate the position by going flat-out again. Overtaking the number 18 Pininfarina before the end of the race had become the target once more.

Returning to pit wall after over an hour's rest, Momo noticed that there was a big gap between himself and the other two drivers of the day. Sosuke and Rin were extracting more out of the car, using its cornering abilities more effectively to close on their opponents in a less downforce-based GT-style car. They were pushing closer to the limit than he felt he had done, and they were spectacular to watch. In the garage, Ai was fixated on the screen, his left leg twitching with excitement as his _senpai_ prepared to mount an attack on ninth place. But Phoebe Heyerdahl was every bit as hard to pass as Helga Pataki, and Rin couldn't do it.

“I'm stuck... It's tiring”, he called.

“Do you need to be relieved, Matsuoka?”, Sosuke and Momotaro heard Seijuro ask in reply. They guessed the answer had been affirmative. Rin had effectively been in sprint mode whenever he was in the car.

“Understood”, the older Mikoshiba concluded, before turning to Sosuke without hesitation. “Yamazaki, get ready.” Momotaro bit his tongue. He wanted to put himself forward, he wanted to be given a chance to do battle. That said, he noticed the last lap done by the duelling cars: 1'51.3. The Peugeot that had starred in Belgium had suffered a setback, was running on the same lap as them, and catching up: Spirou had just clocked a 1'49.8 in traffic. Momo's fist clenched in frustration. It would be a tall order for Momo to match those times, attack the car ahead and fend off the reigning champions. It would be a tall order for Sosuke too, but he had to concede that his brother was right in thinking that he wasn't as ready as his senior to take on the challenge.

 

Upon Rin's return, Nitori got up for the first time since the start of the race to greet him, saying that he'd enjoyed watching him. Ai used to do that all the time at the swim club. Rin simply smiled while wiping his forehead and neck with his favourite Shark towel, noting that some things just don't change.

On track, Sosuke had given Phoebe Heyerdahl some breathing space, in the hope of getting some quick laps in to reduce the possibility of the Peugeot beating them. It proved sufficient to save tenth place, but he had let the tow available on the straights slip away from him, so he wasn't close enough to make an attempt to gain ninth in the last laps. Despite that, the crew was pleased with the race: they had made it to the finish, gained nine places since the start of the race and, albeit thanks to technical issues, they had beaten the Iwatobi team for the first time.

“Nice try, Yamazaki, nice try”, Seijuro called, with Momo, Ai and Rin listening. “Superb driving from all three of you, great counter-punch after yesterday, and we finish in the top 10! Congratulations!” Although the joy was measured, drivers, engineers and mechanics still shook hands and patted each other on the back. Everyone was sincerely happy with the result, but there was also cause for concern.

Sosuke had most likely redeemed his error at Spa, but there was no changing the management's mind about continuing the driver rotation.

Rin was frustrated that he hadn't succeeded in passing the Pininfarina on track, although he had defended well when he had got ahead due to the alternate strategy.

Momotaro had done what was asked of him, and his possible future as a regular driver on the squad certainly hinged on the comparison with Aiichiro in America.

Seijuro had witnessed three top-notch performances that day, but he couldn't conclude yet as to who was most deserving of the permanent slots.

Aiichiro had seen a remarkable display from his team-mates, one he could certainly look up to, but could he replicate it?

***

****NURBURGRING 1000 KM FINAL CLASSIFICATION** **

Started: 32 (24 X1, 8 X2) / Classified: 25 (17 X1, 8 X2)

1\. Hey Arnold! Chrysler Racing - #16 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - Arnold/Gerald/Sid - 195 LAPS

2\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuga - +0'41"021

3\. Peter Perfect Racing - #4 Veritas RS III - P.Perfect/P.Pitstop/P.Pending - +1'11"683 (3 more cars on lead lap)

...

10\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/M.Mikoshiba - 193 LAPS

15\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 191 LAPS

...

18\. (1st X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - 183 LAPS

19\. (2nd X2) Looney Tunes Alpine - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 182 LAPS

20\. (3rd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - +0'39"066

***

**MAKOTO TACHIBANA: “STILL LEARNING A GREAT DEAL”**

_Iwatobi Morning column, 06/05/2015_

Dear readers,

It always feels good to be home after several weeks away. This trip wasn't as long as our first stay in Europe, but two and a half weeks still weigh on you. All of us kept in touch with our teachers here in Japan to be up to date on our university coursework as the new academic year begins, and we make time almost every day to study. Often, physical training follows, and this freshens the mind and makes re-reads easier later on. If you're a student, try it! It works for us... most of the time.

On top of this, we had two new tracks to learn at the first rounds of the 2015 Animated Endurance Racing Series: Spa-Francorchamps and the Nürburgring. The first, I would describe as fast and flowing, with many breathtaking, near flat-out corners; the second is more technical. And both were on the calendar in 2014, so we found ourselves at a disadvantage against teams that had raced their Experimental cars there before. It sounds like an excuse, but it does make a difference. Rei, our race engineer, reckoned the front-runners were over a second per lap faster than their first visit!

At Spa, in Belgium, we also had the weather to contend with. This was our first race in changing conditions, and Nagisa had to deal with varying grip levels in the first hour and a half. It was a trying return to competition for him, but Haru and I found we were also unable to make up places when we took over, and we plodded on to finish two laps down.

Exhausted and disappointed, we recaptured our motivation and trained hard for the next round in Germany. On the Wednesday before the race, we had the Drivers' Gala, which included a morning of chucking a road car around the world-famous Nordschleife. Spa winner Spirou is just as impressive at the wheel of a saloon as he is driving his TLM-winning prototype, and he set the fastest time of the day; the best of us, Nagisa, was twenty seconds adrift!

Moving on to the AERS race, Haru qualified the car an encouraging 11th, and Nagisa's start was good this time. But the pit crew faced a recalcitrant wheel nut when I took over, and that was the beginning of our problems. The rear brakes overheated, and we dropped out of the running when we replaced them. We were stuck at the back, and could only count on retirements or more serious problems for others to make progress. It turned our race into a long test session, which provides practice, but you realise it's a bit boring when you look at the screens and see others, like our friends at Samezuka, fighting for position.

So it was a rather disappointing trip for us, but we have every reason to hope for better things as the season builds up to the TLM. Our colleagues at the works squad absolutely dominated the Nürburgring race, taking pole position and never relinquishing the lead. “This car is dynamite”, Rei said to me at Le Mans last year, and Chrysler's first victory with the ME Four-Twelve proves the point. We will take the positives of their result to spur us on, we are still learning a great deal and I'm optimistic that we can look forward to it all coming together sooner or later. Our next opportunity to show ourselves will be in America mid-June, albeit without Haru who will be preparing for the World Swimming Championships. Naturally, the whole team is proud of him making it to his first major international competition, and wish him the best in that. With Nagisa and Rei beside me at the wheel, we in turn will try to make him proud of us at the 'Seca Sprint!

Finally, on behalf of the Iwatobi Racing Team, I take the chance to thank Chrysler and Ties Sports Co. for their continued trust in us, and a big thank you to the supporters in Iwatobi Town and elsewhere; we have seen the photos of the fan groups meeting up to watch us, it's always touching!

See you next race time in Laguna Seca!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Samezuka in the next segment, as the MomoTori fight to show Seijuro who's best takes flight.


	8. Round 3 - United States

**LAGUNA NOTES**

_New teams recap._ Three Veritas RS IIIs are on the grid this weekend, with the Crystal Gems and South Park Racing squads making their debut under the guidance of the car's designers, Peter Perfect Racing. Having made an appearance at the Tsukuba pre-season test, Team TechnoVoyager's Cadillacs, one in each class, are about to make their first race start, and the X2 category welcomes the privateer Kia run by Turnabout Team. All these new squads will also run in Brazil in two weeks time, to prepare for their 24-hour debut. The Looney Tunes team is expanding to two cars for the first time since 2012; Lola Bunny, Marvin the Martian and Road Runner will man the #61 Alpine for the rest of the season.

 _X2 transfers._ The biggest news in the small class though is the switch of Animaniacs Racing to the ultra-dominant Alfa Romeo stable, and the transfer of Weasel Speedlab's expertise to the Visos programme, which up until now was only in the hands of Jeff Tracy's International Racing. Ford says that the two teams will be sharing the development tasks. This means that the X1 Saleen S5S and the X2 Yamaha are shelved. Having already lost the Fuore BlackJag, a first round of sorting has taken place, with possibly more to come soon. Several manufacturers are reportedly on the brink of opening up to customers, a move that could seduce teams disappointed by their independent projects.

 _X1 squads not flocking to Brazil._ A number of teams have declined to go to Interlagos in a fortnight's time, but a full house in X2 means that the small class will actually outnumber the big guns. Nonetheless, there will be novelties in the form of a second works Chrysler for Harold Berman, Stinky Peterson and Eugene Horowitz, and a number 10 VW for Clemont, Serena and Iris. The goal at Kanto is to give these drivers experience so that the line-up can be reshuffled in 2016, launching a real three-car assault on the TLM. _“Three-car teams have a huge advantage at Le Mans, that's how it's done in the June race”_ , Prof. Samuel Oak said on Friday. He added that _“announcements to come from the Series organisers will make more sense of this strategy”_ , which may refer to rumours that the rulemakers are considering pressing on with the introduction of a championship in 2016.

***

**Saturday 20 th-Sunday 21st June 2015**

“And that's a lap of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. _Sayonara_ , race fans!”

Ai waved to the camera in front of him, at which point the journalist opposite him couldn't resist shouting “cut!”. The outdoor shoot was for the first and last scenes of the Series broadcaster's guided lap feature, in which Aiichiro, as a returning driver for Mazda on a circuit owned by the manufacturer, talked through onboard footage, pointing out the difficulties of each corner on the Californian track.

“That's great, Nitori-san, thanks for taking part in the pre-race show. We have to get editing now, we'll send you the finished video.” After shaking hands, the commentator also waved at Rin and Momo, standing behind pit road wall beside the tactician's cabin, and who had watched the scene with amusement. With the filming crew gone, Ai breathed a sigh of relief.

“Phew, it wasn't difficult, but I was so nervous!”, he said. “I bet it showed...” His team-mates jumped on the chance to embarrass him a bit more.

“That wave at the end was rather _kawaii_ , Nitori-kun!”, Momo teased.

“Your broken English has improved nicely”, Rin noted.

“No fair, you two wouldn't have done any better!”, Ai pouted, putting his red face in his hands. “Man, there's no way I can watch myself in that video later!”

“Never mind the onboard commentary, we need to go over the qualifying data”, Rin remarked.

“ _Hai_ , captain!”, the other two replied. The tall red-haired man rolled his eyes and groaned. He didn't like being called 'captain' when he was in charge of the swim team, and his team-mates were playing on that.

 

Ai's attitude while examining performance was different that weekend. Whereas usually he would compare results from different set-ups to help determine which was the fastest, in particular which allowed Rin and Sosuke to be faster, this time he also looked for areas of personal improvement by comparing his driving style with Rin's and Momo's. He was under pressure to defend his race seat, and his competition with Momotaro had escalated throughout practice. The two were talking to each other, but sleeping in different rooms. Ai had taken the bunk in Rin's room left vacant by Sosuke, who didn't see the point of travelling to the US for a measly half-hour of free practice. Kept busy by studies and a part-time job at home, he had also decided that he didn't want to travel long distances for just a few days, so he had withdrawn from the race in Brazil too, much to Rin's disappointment.

The team atmosphere, while still good enough, made the technical team nervous. The Nitori-Mikoshiba duel threatened to spill over onto the last race before the TLM. No-one among the mechanics wanted their actions to be suspected as favouring one driver or the other, and they raised the concern that it could actually hinder the car's progress. Seijuro appeased them by repeating that the driver rotation was originally planned for Germany and the US, and the priority in Sao Paulo would be the preparation of the 24-hour race, no matter who was in the line-up.

So the comparisons between Ai and Momo had to be fair, and there was only one chance to get them right. It was a political headache for the team principal, who maintained that he would support the fastest of the pair – which was Momo by a diminishing margin –, but he knew well that his best driver showed, and had always shown, a clear preference for Nitori. After the debrief, Seijuro consulted with Rin to set up a suitable plan for the next afternoon. The typical strategy for a four-hour race was to divide it evenly into three double-stints of roughly equal length: start, middle and finish. Placing the competing racers was crucial and tricky. The middle stint often came with less pressure than the start and the finish, so it was quickly decided that Rin should take the middle, so as to put the other two out of their comfort zones. Seijuro suggested that Momo could take the start, as he had been eager to pull off some overtakes in Germany, and the busy, bunched-up conditions following the grid formation were the most favourable for passing. So Ai would take the final stint. In these 'sprint' races, there was usually a lot of action, quite a few Safety Car periods and close finishes as a result. Level-headedness and a good defence would be appreciated at that stage, and Rin thought this fitted his _kohai_ better than the more offensive attitude needed at the start.

The two captains agreed that Momo-Rin-Ai was the best order for the selection process, aswell as a reasonable strategy _per se_ , and went to announce their decision to the rest of the squad. While they had been joyously upping the ante against each other in practice, Aiichiro and Momotaro felt the significance of their tasks for the team's overall result.

“I'm much happier this weekend”, Seijuro spoke to conclude the evening. “The work in the simulator has paid off, and we're starting from our best-ever grid position tomorrow. I'm counting on all of you to get our best-ever finish!”

***

****MRLS 4 HOURS "SECA SPRINT" GRID & STARTING DRIVERS** **

Qualified: 37 (22 X1, 15 X2) / Start 2 PM local

 _Row 1_ \- 1. Hey Arnold Chrysler #16 (Gerald Johanssen) / 2. PPR Veritas #4 (Penelope Pitstop)

 _Row 2_ \- 3. Double-D Maserati #19 (Eddy) / 4. T-Rex Shelby #12 (Buck)

...

 _Row 4_ \- 7. Samezuka Mazda #22 (Momotaro Mikoshiba) / 8. Digimon Cadillac #6 (Tai Kamiya)

 _Row 6_ \- 11. Pataki Pininfarina #18 (Helga Pataki) / 12. Iwatobi Chrysler #17 (Makoto Tachibana)

...

 _X2 Row 1_ \- 1. MGM Kia #52 (McWolf) / 2. MGM Kia #53 (Tyke)

 _X2 Row 2_ \- 3. Team Rocket Alfa #80 (James) / 4. Flintstone Volvo #64 (Wilma Flintstone)

***

_Commentary transcript from the start of the race: 2 PM._

-Coming down the hill in this glorious Californian sunshine, the X1 grid forms. Nine different cars in the top nine, it's Chrysler and Veritas on the front row; behind them, it's Maserati, Shelby, Ford, McLaren, Mazda, Cadillac, and how will the Lamborghini fare from ninth? The Pace Car has pulled off, the field rolls up to the start line, the race director waves the green flag: WE ARE RACING AT LAGUNA SECA! The front-runners fire over the crest at Turn One, the number 12 Shelby's got a good run and tries to peek through the middle, and into Andretti the Digimon car is trying to get a run on the Mazda which locks up in defence, but OH! there's contact behind! The Iwatobi Chrysler! Driven into the sand by... that looks like the second Shelby, the number 21...

-And there's another off behind, that's the pink Veritas, the Crystal Gem car.

-Damage to the front end of the number 21, and you're right, Paul, that is the number 14, disastrous debut for them, but did that car make contact aswell? We're now looking at the X2 grid rolling up for their separate start...

-Is this going to be a normal start? Surely not, not with all that mess over at...

[Race Control Radio interrupts: “Full Course Yellow, Full Course Yellow!”]

-There's your answer: Full Course Yellow. All cars slow down to 80 km/h, roughly 50 miles an hour, and the X2 field goes back into single file down into the hairpin. The X1 leaders have broken the intermediate timing beam, they're nearly into the Corkscrew by now. So, we've got three cars involved in two separate incidents on the opening lap. The number 21 Shelby and the number 17 Chrysler made contact, but what happened behind isn't so clear.

-I saw the number 14 Crystal Gems Veritas go out wide into the gravel before Turn 2, it was a bit weird. And there's a _fourth_ car with problems, the Powerpuff Bertone has a puncture... That car was starting alongside the 14, so was there contact?

[Race Control Radio interrupts: “Safety Car for incident at Turn Two.”]

-Well, that was quick, we've only had two corners of proper racing, and we have our first Safety Car of the day. A chance for us to see what has changed at the front: according to our timing screens, Buck has managed to pass the Maserati for third, the Mazda held on to seventh, that's the car that locked up in a big way, the Lambo lost ninth, and obviously, outside the top ten there have been more changes. Here's a replay of the start. Now, I was looking at the fourth row, with Tai Kamiya attacking Momotaro Mikoshiba. Don't let the puff of white smoke distract you, observe behind, row six or seven, we'll see what befell the Iwatobi Chrysler and the second Shelby... Ohhh, Bernie runs up the back of Tachibana, that'll be judged 100% the T-Rex's fault. And here's the aerial shot.

-Try to look further back to see what maybe happened between the Powerpuff Bertone and the Crystal Gems Veritas... Argh, we're not going to see it, are we? The camera's focusing on the front...

-There's the puff of tyre smoke from the 22, and the collision between cars 17 and 21... and the problems for the 14 have already started by the time it comes into view. And this is a replay of the leaders going through Turn Three... Aha, the number 12 Shelby stayed alongside the Maserati, all the way around the outside of Andretti, and made the pass at the next corner, well done, brave stuff! Back live, here's the crash site and the Safety Car train going by. It looks like Garnet is stuck there, over to the left, and the 21 is being towed off, that's the last we'll see of that, I suspect. Looks like Tachibana has got out of there... Yes, here he is on screen at the Corkscrew.

-He's doing a good job to control that down the steep hill through Rainey Curve, the rear bodywork is crumpled up and rubbing against the tyres. That could be serious, I don't know how much further that car can go.

[Race Control Radio interrupts: “X2 cars return to grid order please.”]

-Ok, “return to grid order”... Curious message that, from the race director. Has there been a change of position in X2?... And more importantly, how? Their start was under Full Course Yellow.

-Well it could have been a confusing situation, maybe for one of the new teams. They were expecting to start, someone might have made a move before getting the FCY message, and didn't give the place back because “hey, it's yellow now, so no overtaking!” Still, someone made a pass under yellow, and that'll be a penalty when we go green again.

-Makoto Tachibana has made it back to the pits, the crew gets to work on the back end. We also saw the number 14 Veritas moving again, so we should only have one or two more laps behind the Safety Car, just to give the marshals the time they need to clear the debris. Bruce is down in pit lane at Iwatobi, what's going on?

-Obviously these guys want to change as little as possible to save time, so they're hammering around to clear the wheels, take those off, and they'll want to check the chassis. That's the key to whether or not they can stay in this race, and if they can, I can tell you the duct tape will be coming out.

-Thank you, Bruce. Well, Paul, I must say, that was the most hectic start we've had in a while.

-This sort of thing always baffles me. You can't win a race on the first lap, but you can lose it big time, and everyone needs to remember that. Even if four hours is relatively short for an AERS race, it's still long, and being careless at Turn One like that is just... well, careless. I mean needlessly careless. And it's a shame for the teams whose cars get punted off. But as you say, we didn't see that sort of carelessness in the last year or so.

-It's a sign the competition is getting more ferocious. Not that it wasn't before, but the pace is picking up, there's more friction, and we saw some hotly disputed fights at the Nürburgring. Hopefully the field will heed the warning of that start though, and that Safety Cars won't breed Safety Cars, as we say. So let's recap the order before the Safety Car comes in, at the end of this next lap, lap 4, we presume: Gerald Johanssen, the man who crossed the line to win in Germany, leads in California with the number 16 works Chrysler, ahead of Penelope Pitstop in the number 4 officially-not-works, but-it-is-works-really Veritas, and Buck in the number 12 Shelby took third off Eddy's number 19 Maserati, the car that won here last year, in Turn Three on the opening lap. TB1 Ford, Team7 McLaren, Samezuka Mazda and the number 6 Digimon Cadillac follow. In X2, nothing's changed because the start was neutralised, so Kia 1-2 at the front, Team Rocket Alfa and the Team Flintstone Volvo behind them. Do we know who jumped the start in X2, Paul?

-I've been looking, but the position was given back, because no-one's out of sequence anymore, and I didn't pay more attention when Race Control made the announcement. We'll just have to wait for the penalty.

-Lights are out on the Safety Car, the leaders come into the Corkscrew, already Gerald bunches up the field, it's not a long way to the green flag once you're out of Rainey. It's not a long lap, period; it's the shortest of the calendar, in fact. Who's going to get the jump on the others? Let's find out, and don't forget, you can't peek ahead before the line. The Safety Car is on pit road, Gerald can dictate the pace, and he gets going... NOW, here we go! Back to racing!

[Race Control Radio interrupts: “green, green, green!”]

The Chrysler is safely ahead, can Eddy bounce back at the Shelby? Through Turn One over the crest, lots of cars taking defensive lines into Andretti, another puff of white smoke, was that Mikoshiba again? The TV director's letting us see if everyone gets through the hairpin ok, seems orderly so far. And here come the X2s, and this is their real start: James is wasting no time, he's having a go around the outside of Tyke! Can he do what Buck did earlier in the big class and get underneath at Turn Three? No, not quite, it remains Kia 1-2 as we are on lap 5 of this four-hour race.

 

_Meanwhile in pit lane._

Next to the tactician's cabin, Aiichiro passed comment on his team-mate's driving.

“Momo-kun's shredding those tyres!”

The sentence was spoken to be audible to the people around him, and an engineer passed on the driver's concern to the boss. Seijuro radioed his brother, telling him to stop locking the front wheels up. He seemed to be on the back foot as he continued to defend against Tai Kamiya, and it would only get harder for him if he flat-spotted his tyres. Seijuro, meanwhile, grumbled to himself.

“We'll see if Nitori doesn't make those mistakes later.”


	9. Ai's Hour (and twenty)

_**4:30 PM – Hourly update.** 4.2 seconds is the gap between the #12 Shelby and the #16 Chrysler at the front, and Rin Matsuoka has built a fine cushion for the #22 Mazda in third. In X2, we still have a thrilling battle between the Team Rocket Alfa, two Kias, the #60 Alpine and the #88 Volvo: only 8 seconds covering the top 5 with 90 minutes to go!_

“The right one first”, Ai thought hard under his helmet as he reached out for his gloves. Like his boots, they were non-matching: the left one was yellow, the right one purple. This made it easier for him to stick to his superstition. Some years earlier, he had noted that he had shattered a personal best in the pool after putting his swimsuit on right leg first, and he needed to deliver a strong performance that day, so purple side first was a must.

Nitori felt the scorching Californian heat on his legs when he stepped out into the sunshine; compared to the year before, his suit had more white on the top half, which was fortunate in this case. While waiting for Rin to bring the Furai in, sweat broke on his forehead under the rather heavy silver, yellow and purple helmet. But the cockpit had air conditionning, so he could look forward to more comfort inside the car than out, and frankly, the task at hand would be hard enough without the A/C failing. After Momotaro, whose mission was to pull off some overtakes at the start – which, strictly speaking, he hadn't managed to do, although he had gained places by the end of his stint as a couple of cars ahead collided –, Rin's gutsy, aggressive driving, combined with clever timing of the intermediate pitstop with respect to Safety Car periods for incidents that knocked out some of the favourites, led to the car's position improving beyond the team's wildest ambitions. Aiichiro's goal was to seal the deal: not losing a place would mean a landmark podium for Samezuka. If the pit stop that was about to take place went normally, he would even have an interesting margin over the pursuing car, because Rin had put in a terrific performance. Ai's objective would be to not squander the healthy advantage his _senpai_ had built. Achieving that would also be a big boost to his chances of staying on the team.

The refuelling hose connected with the car, and Rin powerfully sprung out of the cockpit. Ai placed his seat adapter in as he was shorter and thinner than the previous driver, before sliding in himself. All he had to do next was put his hands on the steering wheel, while Rin buckled him in and tightened the harness. Once the drink bottle was in place and the transponder changed, he felt a strong pat on his chest, so strong he could swear that Rin's hour and a half of driving had woken him up rather than tired him out. It was the signal that everything was in place, aswell as a mark of encouragement. Aiichiro returned a thumbs up and his trademark “ _hai!_ ”, loud enough for Rin to hear over the sound of cars roaring by and the mechanics' airguns getting to work on the wheels. The door shut, and Rin ran in front of the car. Ai's glance followed him to the left as he leapt over the pit lane wall, but soon he had to focus on the lollipop man's orders. His finger was ready on the ignition button, and when he felt the car drop as the jacks retracted, the sign in front of him was flipped to “FIRE” and lifted. Less than a second later, the engine was running and Ai was off. The pit apron continued on the inside of the first hairpin, and Ai rejoined the track between turns 2 and 3. He noticed a pair of headlights in his rear view mirror. They were yellow, so they belonged to a slower, X2 car that he wasn't going to have to pass straight up, on cold tyres.

“That's one less worry for now”, he thought. A lap later, Seijuro sent a message that confirmed what was at stake.

“The 6 is pitting, we are P3. Diff next time round.”

The first half of Ai's run was largely uneventful. He concentrated on being consistent, sticking to a rhythm that he had found himself comfortable with in practice. He wasn't as fast as Matt Ishida, who was driving the Cadillac that was following, but the gap between them came down slowly and steadily. There was no cause for concern until a Full Course Yellow intervened. The fear on pit wall was that the Safety Car might be needed for the incident, which would erase the advantage completely in an instant. Thankfully, Race Control deemed that enough of the Safety Car had been seen in the chaotic first half of the race, and the marshals managed the situation, a breakdown at Turn Five, with no difficulty. There was a detectable hint of relief in Seijuro's voice when he radioed “back to green in 20 seconds” to the car, meaning Ai's cushion had been preserved.

After the final fuel stops however, things changed. Ai had been conservative in his approach, such as pressing the speed limiter button early on the way in and a bit late on the way out, and rigorously reminding himself of the ignition procedure, in order to eliminate any chance of a stupid, avoidable loss of time through stalling or picking up a penalty. It took a full second out of his lead over the fourth-placed car. Meanwhile, Matt Ishida had become more incisive. From a tenth or two here and there, the gap started decreasing by several tenths of a second per lap. Soon, every time Ai got a message from Seijuro, it was to say that he was losing ground to the number 6 car. He started to feel that he was going to disappoint the whole team by undoing Rin's good work.

_**5:40 PM – Big fights to watch with 20 minutes to go.** It's less than 6 seconds between the #12 Shelby and the #16 Chrysler at the front, it's less than 6 seconds between the #22 Mazda and the #6 Cadillac for third overall, and it's less than 6 seconds covering the top three in X2... Exciting stuff!_

“5.7 this time, Nitori, 5.7.” Seijuro announced. He shook his head and mumbled “he's hearing the gaps, but he's not raising his game.” Sitting next to him, Rin heard.

“I know what Ai's like”, he thought. “If he needs help, he won't dare ask.” With that, he took the second headset off of an engineer, and, without warning the boss, he talked to the car.

“Ai, how are you feeling?”

Seijuro was surprised. It was an unusual question to ask if it wasn't followed by “do you need to be relieved?”, and it was impossible to change driver at this stage.

“ _Senpai_... I'm not going to make it at this rate, am I?”, was the answer.

“Don't focus on the gap, just concentrate on your driving”, Rin replied. “Be bolder with the traffic maybe, but otherwise, keep doing what you're doing.”

“We may have a break here”, Seijuro interrupted, pointing at the TV screen. Rin looked and checked the “last lap” column on the live timing.

“Nagisa!”, he exclaimed.

The Iwatobi Racing Team was still running, and Nagisa, who was taking the last third of the race, was on a charge. He took out of Ishida twice the amount of time Ishida had taken out of Nitori on the previous tour, and had closed in on the Digimon Cadillac. The problem was that the privateer Chrysler was five laps down because of the repairs after the first-lap incident it was involved in, so this wouldn't be a direct fight for position. Nonetheless, Nagisa was entitled to unlap himself if his pace allowed it.

“Keep pushing, Ai, the 6 is busy!”, Rin announced on the radio, but the joy at Samezuka would be short-lived. Matt Ishida knew that he had nothing to gain fighting with a car that was out of the running, so he let Nagisa through at the final turn. He was thus able to use the tow on the main straight from the blue and white machine to regain the time lost in doing so, and even close in on Aiichiro quicker if he could stay with it.

_**5:44 PM – Pit interview: Rei Ryugazaki (#17 Chrysler).** “We have no intention of getting involved in the battle for third, Nagisa is just out there to do some hot laps. He is on softs. It's such a pity we had that hit on lap one, because this is our true pace.”_

Nagisa romped away from Ishida, breaking the tow quickly, and he was soon bearing down on his old breaststroke rival. Seijuro had an idea.

“Hazuki is coming, Nitori. Keep him behind you at all costs.”

“No, certainly not!”, Rin shouted.

“Ok, stand by, Nitori”, the tactician reacted, before closing the microphone. He was not happy with Rin, to say the least. “Damn it, Matsuoka, this is my job! I say we keep Hazuki behind to act as a buffer to hold back the 6.”

“Nagisa's coming through whatever Ai does”, Rin protested. “Your idea's only going to lose us time, the 6 will close right up, and the energy Ai puts in to block Nagisa is energy he won't have to defend against Ishida! We're not racing Nagisa, we mustn't race him.”

“We wouldn't be racing him, we'd be _using_ him”, Seijuro replied. He knew that there was truth in Rin's reasoning, but he was still annoyed at his order being contradicted. “Besides, he's your friend, right? Can't you go over to Iwatobi and tell him to hold the 6 up for us?”

Rin gasped at the cynical and unsporting suggestion, just managing to keep his anger contained. The two exchanged angry looks for a moment. Both captains had crossed a line, and realised it. The younger man spoke again next.

“I'm just saying that the less Ai has to defend, the better our chances are.”

Seijuro paused, then agreed.

“Right, he's your man, let's do it your way.” He then pressed the button to talk to the car. “Nitori, sorry for the confusion. We've decided: do not race Hazuki.”

“Does that mean I let him pass?”, a surprised Ai asked.

“No, it means 'do not race him', he's not on the same lap as us”, Seijuro replied, agitated.

“Don't move over for him”, Rin took over, more calmly, “but also, don't fight to keep him behind you. He's going to try to pass you because he's much faster. When he does, don't resist him, because he's not overtaking for position. Is that clear?”

“Er... Yes, Rin-senpai, I think I understand.”

It wasn't long before Nagisa did attempt a pass, and Ai gave him plenty of room at Andretti Hairpin to go through. He tried to follow the Chrysler, but the tyres were making too much of a difference. Soft tyres were good for less than an hour, which was why most teams didn't use them for double-stints. Iwatobi were on an unusual alternate strategy, and given their situation after the early collision, it couldn't hurt them.

_**5:52 PM – THE IWATOBI CHRYSLER SETS THE FASTEST LAP OF THE RACE!** That dent at the back obviously isn't troubling the handling too much, and 'Hazu' is on fire! Soft tyres, clear track: 1'17.4 is the result, faster than his qualifying time!_

_**5:54 PM – Third place to be hotly contested.** The gap isn't coming down between first and second, so a Shelby win looks very likely now, but Matt Ishida (#6 Cadillac) is about to catch up with Ai Nitori (#22 Mazda): either Samezuka or the Digimon team will come away from Laguna Seca with their first overall podium, but which one?_

 

“Four laps to go, Nitori. Gap is 1.3.”

“I see him.”

“He's too far back to make a move for now, Ai, so keep driving. Just trail brake some more in turns 2 and 11 to get the feel of it.”

 

Ai followed Rin's advice, but just over a lap later, he decided that Matt Ishida was too close to be ignored: he had to defend. Out of the final corner, he made sure he didn't spin the wheels under acceleration, and held left between turns 1 and 2. Top speed was the Mazda's weakness, and sure enough, the Cadillac was firmly in his right-hand mirror. However, the car's strong point was cornering, and there was no way Ishida could get around on the outside. Still, Ai could sense defeat coming – there was one more full length of the main straight to go.

“Two to go, Nitori. Watch out, you've got fighting X2 traffic ahead.”

“Geez, just what I need”, Ai thought. He spotted the bright green Mystery Machines competitor in the run up to the Corkscrew. He'd have to pass this car quickly, knowing that it was in a duel. To signal his presence, he flashed his lights all the way down the hill. Out of Turn 10, it moved aside, revealing its adversary, an Alpine. Ai saw that Ishida was following him past the Volvo, and made a decision: he'd get underneath the other car at Turn 11. It was a bit of a long shot, and he had to brake extra late to stand a chance, but he had a go. He regretted it as the blue car started to turn in normally.

“ _Itaitaitai_...NOOO!”, he squealed, slamming the brakes, which made the right-front wheel lock up. The puff of smoke was a saviour though, as it alerted the driver of the car ahead, who took evasive action. Ai needed a split second to realise he had been given the room on the inside, and, with adrenalin invading his body, he took the tight line and floored the throttle on the exit of the corner. He could only hope that Ishida hadn't somehow got through too and carried better momentum. A little panicked by the close call, his breathing accelerated with the car. He was huffing and puffing so loudly, he almost didn't hear Rin call “last lap, stay focused!”

_**5:59 PM – NEARLY DRAMA AT TURN 11!** The closest fights on track almost got wiped out there! Ai Nitori (#22 Mazda), desperate to defend his third place, made an optimistic lunge on the #60 Alpine which is fighting Scooby-Doo for fourth in X2. Lightning reaction from Daffy Duck means that carnage is avoided, but that was a big scare! FINAL LAP!_

He ran the same defensive line into the main overtaking spot as the previous lap, but this time, Ishida wasn't as close. The risky move he had made on the Alpine had saved his place for the time being, but there were still two or three other places he could be attacked at. He covered those by straying towards the middle of the road a little longer, especially at the last turn, where he didn't move all the way to the right for the tight left-hander. Out of there, he hogged the middle again to stop a possible cut-back from Ishida, even if his opponent wouldn't manage overlap him before the line under normal acceleration. It had been a tense final lap, but Ai had done enough: he beat the Cadillac to the chequered flag!

_**6:00 PM - #12 SHELBY WINS THE 'SECA SPRINT!** 3.7 seconds is Bugsy's margin over Arnold. The T-Rex Sport pit crew are overjoyed, and it's all smiles at Chrysler too; they won't be disappointed with second today. Team Rocket Alfa win X2 ahead of the two Kias, and behind them, Ai Nitori holds on to give Samezuka Mazdaspeed the last podium slot!_

The first thing Ai heard as he started to rev the engine down after the finish line was Rin yelling on the radio.

“YEE-HA! P3, AI, P3! AWESOME!” The driver was just as happy, but mostly relieved.

“Phew... Incredible... I was so scared I'd ruin it, _senpai_!”, he said.

“You should have seen Sei's face when you pulled off that move on the backmarker!”, Rin laughed. “You scared the crap out of him!” The tactician next to him was also grinning.

“Fucking hell, Nitori, don't do that again!” he joked. Raw language from him wasn't uncommon outside strictly professional talk. “Fantastic job, great race from all three of you. Best-ever finish, just what we said we'd do! Brilliant!”

“Nitori-senpaiiiii! That was amazing!”, another voice shouted. Momo had taken the second headset off of Rin, and he rambled on about how excited Ai's stint had made him. The rivalry between the two junior drivers seemed to be gone; no-one was thinking about what would be decided in terms of future drivers. All that mattered was the moment and the team's result. In the background, mechanics and engineers were shouting and applauding. Hearing everyone's happiness made Ai's own emotions take over. He shed a tear or two, which he wiped with one of his gloved hands.

Seijuro went on to remind Ai of the post-race procedure, which was peculiar this time because of the large number of entrants: parc fermé wasn't big enough, so the cars would be stopped in a line on pit road, with the technical teams not allowed to approach them to avoid tampering, then officials would wheel them off one by one to scrutineering.

Aiichiro stopped his car in the queue and switched off the engine. Sighing and shaking his head in disbelief, he popped the door open, hastily undid his harness, hoisted himself out and stood up on the side of the car. Opposite him were the main grandstands, with the spectators standing, looking at the vehicles as they stopped. Normally shy in public, Ai let his joy show by raising his arms. The knowing crowd cheered and applauded in response.

Basking in the evening sunshine, the Mazda driver was eventually distracted by a tap to the thigh, and a high-pitched shout: “Ai-chan!” He looked down and saw an Iwatobi driver, in full gear, giving him a thumbs up. The stature, the nearly all-white helmet and the '- _chan_ ' mannerism (well, mostly the '- _chan_ ' mannerism) told Ai that it was Nagisa. Rei had told him about Samezuka's result, and the blond boy, also cheery after his exciting run, congratulated his old rival, before pointing out that his team-mates had assembled on the other side of the pit apron line, which they weren't allowed to cross. Ai turned around and saw them, jumped off of the car and ran straight into Rin's arms.

“That was quite a sight you showed us”, the taller man said with a shaky voice. “I'm so proud of you, Ai!” The shorter boy wanted to return something, but there was so much he could say. From the moment the worrying driver rotation scheme had been announced, Rin had supported him, encouraged him. He was thankful for the coaching he got during the race; he wasn't sure he would have held on without it. He couldn't express how important Rin had been to him in the last couple of months, but if he tried, Rin would probably get all emotional, and then and there were neither the time nor the place for that. Ai decided to wait for the privacy of the motorhome bedroom that night to thank him, and instead he remained speechless, holding his team-mate tighter and patting him repeatedly on the back. He could feel others wanting to hug him too, so he eventually moved on to Momo, to some of the engineers, and got a firm handshake from Seijuro.

It was still hot in the early evening at Monterey in June; Ai began to feel that the air had indeed been cooler inside the car. He finally took off his helmet, gloves and balaclava, revealing a face which was coloured a redder shade of pink, and grey hair damp with sweat at the fringe and on the sides. In contrast, his eyes were alight with happiness. He wouldn't have a moment to catch his breath just yet, as the circuit announcers were eager to hear from him. There was never a big podium press conference at the American round, and journalists preferred to hear from the drivers fresh out of the cars – if one could call them “fresh” immediately after their efforts. Ai guessed that he was being asked how he felt after this first top-three finish, but he made the reporter repeat his question in order to gain a few seconds to collect his thoughts.

“I was saying, obviously there's a lot of emotion here for you with this first podium, but in your words, how was the end of that race?”

“Scary”, Ai replied, chuckling. “The moment with the blue car was scary, I don't think I've ever had a rush like that before, but... we made it. We weren't expecting something this good, but the cars ahead of us just seemed to push each other too hard. Momo and Rin drove super stints to get through that with no trouble, pick up the pieces and put me in a position to get this huge result. And I really want to thank the team. The technicians, the engineers, all the guys here, we worked really hard on the set-up of the car, and also the guys back at Mazdaspeed who made the car evolve over the winter. We're getting an awesome, competitive car now, and the high-DF package worked really well around here, so yeah... This result is for all the guys who have worked so hard on the Furai.”

Rin listened and grinned. Ai taking so long to thank the mechanics was exactly the sort of thing he'd expect in a moment like this. With that, the interviewer replied, “ok, thank you very much, Ai Nitori. Let's not hold you up now, because that Champagne is waiting for you over there!”

Momo yelled out “yes! we get Champagne, Nitori-kun!”, before the whole team started to gang up on Ai, like the Samezuka swim team had done when he had been announced captain.

It wasn't every day a non-human crew won a race, and the podium scene with three miniature T-Rexes (5 feet tall) atop of it would be a bit surreal. They were competitors nonetheless, and the interactions between drivers, whatever species they were, were always the same: the winners were congratulated (and Matt Ishida would pop by after the podium to shake Ai's hand), the unlucky received commiserations, and aggressive words could be exchanged after a heated moment on track. Daffy Duck, the driver of the Alpine Ai had barged by on the penultimate lap, walked up to him.

“ _TH_ ay, kid, don't ya know that _TH_ low car _TH_ are ra _TH_ ing too?”

“Yeah, sorry, I'll remember that next time”, Ai replied, though hardly looking sorry.

“It's just that in our sport, we don't race other categories, and the slow ones don't make it past qualifying”, Rin butted in sarcastically. “We'll get used to it eventually.” The comeback made the Mikoshiba brothers laugh, but Ai was a bit uneasy with it. Daffy gave Rin a dissatisfied look, flanked with the remark “yoooouuu're de _TTHH_ picable!”, before storming off.

Ai asked the small bald man who had accompanied the black duck if he was offended.

“Don't wo _ww_ y, he's _w_ ike that with eve _w_ yone. Cong _w_ atu _w_ ations, folks!”, the man winked as he turned to follow his driver away.

***

****MRLS 4 HOURS "SECA SPRINT" FINAL CLASSIFICATION** **

Started: 37 (22 X1, 15 X2) / Classified: 25 (15 X1, 10 X2)

1\. T-Rex Shelby 12 - #12 Shelby GR-1 - Bugsy/Bubba/Buck - 154 LAPS

2\. Hey Arnold! Chrysler Racing - #16 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - Arnold/Gerald/Sid - +0'03"721

3\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/A.Nitori/M.Mikoshiba - +0'31"825

4\. Digimon Team A - #6 Cadillac Cien - T.Kamiya/M.Ishida/S.Takenouchi - +0'32"184 (2 more cars on lead lap)

...

14\. (1st X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - 149 LAPS

15\. (2nd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - +0'10"205

16\. (3rd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #53 Kia GT4 Stinger - Tom/Jerry/Tyke - +0'12"691

17\. (14th X1) Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - +0'25"504

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well who would have thought Ai's meeting with a duck would go like this? XD  
> Trail braking is a notion I learned from Krumm's book. Basically, you keep braking during the turn-in to a corner, creating a tighter entry. It's an important part of modern driving techniques, allowing a driver to brake later, and deep trail braking is rather defensive.


	10. Round 4 - Brazil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although there's another race in here, this is really a bridge chapter between the Samezuka driver rotation drama and Le Mans. Don't let the technicalities Jeremy gets involved in scare you - it's back to basics and back to Iwatobi focus in the next segment.  
> Onboard Interlagos [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/138286349556/tonights-chapter-of-faster-is-at-sao-paulo).

**Thursday 2 nd-Sunday 5th July 2015**

Rin emerged from the pool looking very weary. Throughout the latter part of training, he had seemed distracted to Ai, who was monitoring his times and had twice told him to speed up in his regularity tests. Rin darted straight for his towel, which he covered his hair with, then sat down, staring vacantly away from the water. He looked concerned.

“So un-Rin-senpai-like”, Aiichiro muttered. Momotaro snapped the grey-haired boy out of his trance by nudging him.

“Nitori-kun, are you going to dive in now and swim with me a little?”, he asked excitedly. He still had plenty of energy, which didn't really surprise Ai anymore. Seijuro was tired, but reasonably happy with himself as he stretched on the tile floor, assisted by the racing team's physio. Rin, however, looked perturbed. Ai felt he had to go over to him.

“Just give me a few minutes to discuss the session with Rin-senpai, ok?”, he said, excusing himself, before heading in Rin's direction and sitting next to him. Momo guessed that it may take a bit longer than “a few minutes”, so he didn't wait around. He jumped back in and swam idly, leaving the other two to talk. It was a pity that the Iwatobi boys weren't in Brazil; Momo would have enjoyed to have Nagisa to mess around with.

On the bench, Ai asked softly what the matter was. Rin sighed and shook his head.

“I can't get worked up like this, it's not professional”, he replied vaguely. He paused, then stated “I can't do this here.” He got up and hurried towards the showers. Ai dropped his notepad and pen and ran after him. He just managed to squeeze into the changing stall Rin had entered, pushing the swimmer back, and he locked the door. Rin sat, looking noticeably distressed.

“Is this the right place?”, Ai demanded. Right place or not, Rin couldn't take it anymore. He broke down, covering his mouth to muffle his cries, evacuating whatever emotion he needed to. To Nitori, who just stood there for the time being, it sounded a lot like pain.

After a couple of minutes, Rin calmed down. Ai crouched down in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I'm sorry, Ai”, Rin whispered between two sobs. “I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't... I mean, I've always been like this, and it won't go away...”

“There's nothing wrong with what you feel”, Ai commiserated. “You can't always help it.”

“No, I should have learned to keep a straight face by now. That's what champions do.”

“How do you know what they're like in private? You're being too hard on yourself, _senpai_! You've built up a lot of frustration by not expressing yourself.” Ai nudged Rin to give himself room to sit next to him on the bench. There was just enough width for the two of them in the cubicle.

“Talk to me.”

Rin gulped, wiped his eyes and began quietly. Although he trusted Ai wouldn't spread his confession, there was only so much sound privacy a changing stall in an otherwise busy pool could offer.

“It's been building up since the Nationals. No matter how hard I train and focus, my times are stagnating.”

“But you're well below the minimums for the Olympics, _senpai_!”

“That's not enough. We both know that”, Rin replied. Ai hadn't forgotten, he was just trying to seek out the positives. And the upcoming World Championships weren't even Rin's last opportunity to qualify for the 2016 Games. Still, he lamented on.

“It's days like these that I really think I should have fancied by chances against Haru in the freestyle instead of concentrating on the butterfly. Seijuro's too good. I underestimated him.”

“There's not a lot in it, you can pass him!”, Ai said, with a mix of firm certainty and encouraging sympathy in his voice. He turned to Rin and smiled. “I believe in you, Rin-senpai!”

The words reassured Rin. There was no question that Ai's presence was helping him cope with these training sessions away from his club in Australia, and in direct comparison with Seijuro. And for Ai, it was an honour and a pleasure to be in a position to repay the support he had received in California two weekends prior.

“Meanwhile, you need to rest now, and think about something else”, the younger of the two reprised while he got up. He had to get back to the pool before Momo started to search for him. “You know what Yamazaki-senpai would say”, he concluded as he went through the door.

Ai had done a good job of cheering Rin up until he referred to Sosuke. Rin was missing his childhood friend on this leg of the motor racing programme, but he had seen it coming. Sosuke had not taken his sidelining well. As early as that evening in Aachen, hours after it had been announced that he would miss an event, he had raised the possibility that he'd forgo both early Summer races. From there, he was too proud to back down. Even the podium result hadn't made him change his mind.

“It's cool and all, but be honest: it's a fluke”, he had said to Rin on the phone a few nights after the US race, with a tinge of jealousy. Of course, that offended Rin, who immediately went on the defensive. Sosuke had since apologised, but the argument had made Rin's mood dip after the euphoria of Laguna Seca.

Another few minutes later, Rin escaped the cubicle and returned to the poolside. He stepped into the water gently and let himself float around, still in introspection. The only thing outside that caught his attention was Ai telling a splashing Momo to not disturb him. Nitori could be clumsy at times, like when he had mentioned Sosuke a moment earlier, and on occasions he worried too much, but Rin knew he only ever meant well. Even if Ai still acted as if he was inferior in status to the others, bar Momo, their relationship had become more equal. They had helped each other on this Tour of the Americas.

*** 

“ _Yamazaki will be back with us at Le Mans, and given our current level of performance, I think we can do something special there if the car holds up. After that, we will continue with our three original drivers for the rest of the season. Nothing's set in stone for 2016. All I know is that I want to come back to Brazil next year... for some other reason!”_

Seijuro Mikoshiba, after qualifying. The Samezuka Mazda placed 5th out of 14 in X1.

***

Jeremy's weekend in Sao Paulo wasn't a normal one. Officially, he wasn't there on behalf of the Iwatobi Racing Team. An employee of the manufacturer, his duty this time was to act as a consulting crew chief for the second works car. He wasn't less anxious sitting on pit wall than usual. Even if he didn't have the last word, he had to observe and alert his colleagues if he saw something out of order. In short, he was supervising the number 15 crew and advising prospective tactician Lila Sawyer so that the squad's main bosses didn't have to; they continued to concentrate on the favourite, the number 16, which started from its third consecutive pole position. Although half the X1 field was missing, the 4-hour Brazilian race was treated like a dress rehearsal for the Toon Le Mans, a condensed version of the first quarter or third of the year's main event. The mood was the same at Samezuka, where Rin would be given a nearly two-hour double-stint in the middle of the race to prepare for the longer runs in France. Either side, Aiichiro and Momotaro would each have short-fuelled stints to make them work on raw speed.

The number 15 car wasn't going to climb very high from its starting position of tenth. Its drivers had only raced the ME Four-Twelve once, at Laguna Seca the previous year, to beef up Chrysler's presence at its home race before the Iwatobi Racing Team appeared at Le Mans. The crew was rusty but experienced, since Harold, Stinky and Eugene had been regular team-mates to Arnold, Gerald and Sid in the past. They had qualified ahead of the brand new teams, and even ahead of one of the struggling Citroëns, and to be honest, little more had been expected of them. With the focus on whether or not the number 16 would win another race, Jeremy was supervising a less scrutinised, somewhat more laid-back half of the garage, which just had to make sure its car made it to the end without losing any places. But Stinky Peterson, who started the car, wasn't intent on sitting still. From the moment the green flag waved, he was looking to pass the Dastardly Motorsport machine and have a go at his team's historic rivals, Helga Pataki's squad.

 

The action came to an abrupt stop just after the hour mark when a collision between X2 competitors brought out the Safety Car. For tactical teams, this was a critical moment, as they had to decide whether or not to bring in their cars for a pit stop and change drivers early. Take advantage of that, or stick to the original plan? The decision had to be made extremely rapidly, and drivers were sent to get their kit on in a record time in case the first option was chosen. Since Stinky Peterson was doing well, Jeremy suggested that he should be brought in for a fuel top-up, and sent out for another 40 minutes. It would make the window for the second driver change shorter, and it added another pit stop, but maybe shorter stints with faster average lap times, one of which could use a set of soft tyres, would make up for it. However, Lila Sawyer was uncomfortable with taking risks. It was a practice race for her and her drivers, so she asked Stinky to stay out.

For everyone ahead though, gaining seconds by pitting under yellow was vital, and for Samezuka, the Safety Car period was a godsend. Seijuro had planned for Ai to be in the car for just over his minimum driving time, so Rin was ready and psyched up. The timing was perfect: the team had the advantage of changing driver without losing any time _and_ the comfort of not changing their strategy.

With all the leading cars stopping, Stinky Peterson found himself in first place for the restart, with the sister car just behind him. Enter convenience tactics: the number 16's race engineers requested that the number 15 surrender the position quickly, and hold up Chrysler's rivals for a time.

“A great chance for Stinky to work on his defensive driving!”, joked one of them. Lila winced. Her car was in the lead, and giving it up, even if there was a long way to go in the race, was a bit of a heartbreak.

“I can tell him if you don't want to”, Jeremy said, reassuringly. “It's not every day we get the chance to play as a team.” Lila nodded, the colleagues returned to their stall, and Jeremy made the call.

“Peterson, we'd like you to let the 16 through at the restart. You might feel that sucks a little, but we can still gain a lot of time in advance for when we stop: follow him closely, stay in his tow.” Changing the second half of the order stunned Lila.

“What about holding back?”, she asked.

“They only really want a car between Sidney and the rest”, he answered calmly. “Actually, Peterson will be harder to pass if he does manage to stick with the leader, and with the difference in fuel loads, he might just do that.” For the second time in five minutes, Jeremy's quick thinking had left Lila speechless. The fact that what he had predicted would come true moments later amazed her further.

 

Inevitably though, after a few laps of glory, running in a podium position, the rest of the race turned into a fight to make up places lost due to stopping under green rather than behind the Safety Car for the number 15.

The team's lead car maintained a decent cushion while waiting for Arnold to take over for a run that would be longer than originally planned. Behind it, the fight over second place was intense. It looked like any two of five cars could end up on the podium, and the fiercest battle was without doubt the one between May in the number 9 Volkswagen and Rin. The pair seemed inseparable throughout the next hour, even if Rin was on a longer fuel strategy than May. However, it was clear that Rin was the one who was on his limit, punching above his weight, and he eventually slipped up on the exit of the Curva do Sol. Under acceleration, he slid, and May was unable to avoid contact despite her best efforts; the purple and white VW gave the Mazda a firm push to the right, planting it into the wall. The crash damage meant that Samezuka's race was over, and a Full Course Yellow was used (Race Control didn't deploy the Safety Car because Rin's car was easy to recover), which signalled the final driver changes for most teams, including the number 15 this time.

 

After a change of front bodywork, the number 9 VW, in the hands of Gary Oak, would end up salvaging third place, in between Naruto Uzumaki's McLaren and Peter Perfect's Veritas. But none of them got the chance to challenge Arnold for the victory. The pace of the number 16 meant that it lapped its sister car just before the end, and the two works Chryslers crossed the finish line together in a splendid formation finish: first and seventh. There was a sense of “mission accomplished” on pit wall. Both cars had gone the distance and all the drivers had shown great pace. This prompted an inevitable question from those who interviewed Arnold in Victory Lane...

 

“Two wins from four races, surely you guys are hot favourites for Le Mans now?”

“ _I don't know about favourites, there are some big teams missing here this weekend. Still, we're obviously delighted with our progress this season. We said we'd be at the front, and we are. We're in a position to give it our best shot at Le Mans, that's where we wanted to be, and that's what's gonna matter in two months time.”_

 

After the podium celebrations and group photos in the pits, Phil, better known around the paddock as “Steely Phil”, Arnold's grandfather and team principal, told Jeremy that it was time to get to the debrief. It wasn't an ordinary debrief with the drivers and crew; this was a mid-season meeting with Chrysler Racing's top brass, to discuss the overall performance of the programme and agree on a draft plan for 2016. Before moving on, Phil asked Jeremy what he had done with his copies of number 15's data sheets.

“They're in a yellow folder marked 'JS' in the garage, your guys can take 'em”, he replied. He wasn't allowed to keep any trace of this weekend's activities, so that he couldn't take them to Iwatobi. In the contract, it was clearly stated that data sharing would only go one way between the Japanese squad and the works team: Arnold and his friends had access to all the charts from all the cars, but gave none in return. Jeremy wasn't acrimonious about it; it was just the way things were for privateers. But in hindsight, it was remarkable that Iwatobi had done so well having started with few clues on how to set up the car, a virtually clean sheet. One member of the team stood out in his mind, someone without whom the squad would have been seriously lost.

In a hotel not far from the Interlagos circuit, the head of Chrysler's motorsport division opened the debriefing with a word of satisfaction and a round of applause for the day's result. After that, the board turned serious, and the thick of the discussions were highly political. What was the marque going to petition for at the Series' next technical meeting, which would decide the Balance of Performance for Le Mans and Donington?

“It's pretty obvious we're not going to get our 5 kilos back”, one engineer commented, referring to extra weight the ME Four-Twelves had to take on after the number 16's dominant display in Germany. A consensus was quickly reached on the suggestion that the constructor should ask for a status quo. It was judged a reasonable, if not likely, outcome of the BoP meeting, as several big teams had missed the Tour of the Americas.

Up next was the PR tone the manufacturer should take for the 24 Hours. Surfing on a wave of optimism and very convincing results of late, not to mention the fact that a privateer Chrysler had led the race and claimed second in 2014, victory would be the official, publicly announced objective for the 2015 TLM.

Finally, the subject of 2016 came around. At a sporting meeting of the AERS prior to the US race, regulators had moved a major step closer to securing the existence of a season-long championship, which would be called the “Trophy”, by saying that only voluntary teams would take part. Squads that opposed the idea had one less reason to block it: if they weren't interested, they could simply not enter. A lot of teams didn't mind, but manufacturers were more and more openly supporting the concept. Sensing the wind changing, powerhouses like VW Kanto and Chrysler, who felt they had a car that could win the Trophy, had begun training extra crews in anticipation for multi-car tactics: more cars meant potentially more cars in the points, which meant less points for their rivals.

In the draft plan presented to the board by the director, the only certain entry for 2016 was a works team with two cars. A line caught Jeremy's attention.

“Privateer involvement optional, reduced support, no supply to non-Trophy entrants.”

Like everything else, these details were confidential. He couldn't talk about it to Iwatobi, yet this was their future implicitly being discussed.

An hour after the first one, a second round of applause ended the meeting. On the way out, the chief had a informal word with Jeremy.

“Lila Sawyer said she was happy with your advice today”, he said. “She didn't go through with it all, but you've made an impression.”

“Thank you, Sir, but to be honest, that's sort of Iwatobi rubbing off on me”, Jeremy replied. “Their race engineer comes up with some original ideas.”

“Oh yeah, you mean the hard-medium-soft strategy at Laguna? Indeed, an intriguing reaction to the turn one shunt...”

“It wasn't a reaction, it was his plan all along.” This surprised the boss.

“Well, that's a complex plan to draw up... Creative guy, that Ryugazaki!”, he commented. “Anyway, what I mean to say is, if you want to come home and crew chief the 15 next season, you'd probably be top of the list of candidates.”

“Thank you, Sir. I'll think about it.”

***

****4 HORAS SAO PAULO FINAL CLASSIFICATION** **

Started: 29 (14 X1, 15 X2) / Classified: 23 (12 X1, 11 X2)

1\. Hey Arnold! Chrysler Racing - #16 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - Arnold/Gerald/Sid - 148 LAPS

2\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuuga - +0'27"114

3\. VAG Kanto 9 - #9 Volkswagen Nardo - G.Oak/Dawn/May - +0'32"305 (3 more cars on lead lap)

...

13\. (1st X2) 60 Ans Alpine Looney Tunes - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 142 LAPS+0'41"851

14\. (2nd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - +0'45"200

15\. (3rd X2) Weasel Speedlab - #85 Ford Visos - I.M.Weasel/I.R.Baboon/I.B.Red Guy - +0'49"677

...

RET. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/A.Nitori/M.Mikoshiba - 102 LAPS


	11. Scenes from the Iwatobi Motorhome 1 - Testing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Le Mans. Back to where it all began. But not for everyone... Meantime, the onboard of the circuit is [up on the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/139249797896/heres-the-onboard-for-tomorrows-chapter-and).

**Sunday 23 rd August 2015**

Seeing that his correspondent had missed the agreed time to chat, Haru picked up his mobile. The phone rang four times before someone answered.

“Mmmuh, five more minutes!”, was all he heard before the other end hung up. Five minutes was all he gave.

“Mmmuh, five more...”

“No Makoto, I haven't got all night!”, Haru interrupted firmly.

“Oh, ok, I'll get up”, Makoto groaned. “Just let me make some tea and I'll call you.”

Having to get up at 7:15 on a Sunday wasn't cool, but neither was staying up until around 1 AM when the second Test Day at Le Mans was due to start at 9.

Moments later, a ringtone came from the laptop, and Haru promptly accepted the video call.

“Good evening, Makoto”, he said.

“Meh, good morning, Haru”, Makoto replied, still sounding – and looking – half-awake. “How was the flight?”

“Not bad, Nagisa was unusually quiet.”

“Hey, what?!”, shouted Nagisa from the other side of the room. He, Rei and Gou happened to be passing by, returning from the garage at that moment, and Haru had mentioned him provocatively on purpose.

“What are you saying about me, Haru-chan?”, Nagisa asked threateningly as he walked over. He crashed into Haru's shoulder as he leant over to appear in the picture. “Oh hey, Mako-chan!”

“He's noisier now he's had a turn in the car”, Haru joked. Makoto smiled.

“Rei-chan, Gou-chan! Come over and say hi to Mako-chan!”, Nagisa waved. Rei came up and stopped short of the sofa.

“It's really early back home, is he presentable?”, he asked.

“He's awake”, Haru answered, “but maybe give him another quarter of an hour and it'll be better.”

“That's perfect, I could do with a shower”, Rei said.

“Eeh! I want a shower too, Rei-chan!”, Nagisa complained.

“Well, I said it first.”

“No fair, you take ages!”

“I'm staying down here, Nagisa, use the one in my room”, Haru intervened, settling the dispute. The other three walked off to clean up after the long day.

Saying that Makoto needed time to become more alert was a pretext. Having finished his share of the driving, Haru had returned to the motorhome earlier than the others so that he could have some time to bathe and talk to his dear friend alone before the others got back. There could have been more time available to them, but getting Makoto up even earlier wasn't an option.

“So how was your day?”, the young man inside the screen asked.

“It's cool to be back here”, Haru replied, “but I wasn't very comfortable with the testing programme.”

“Huh? How come?”

“Well, it's just that... I only drive fast, you know... and looking for details is...” Haru went on to explain some of the exercises he'd been given in the car. Makoto knew them, he was normally the one to perform those tasks. And he wasn't there.

When Nagisa had been replaced by Rei, Haru hadn't changed his approach, as he was already the fastest. When Haru had missed Laguna Seca, Nagisa had successfully stepped up to lead the team on pace. In a way, Haru and Nagisa were interchangeable. Both of them had more speed than Makoto, but neither had the right relationship with the engineers to truly replace him.

Give the pit wall feedback. More _precise_ feedback, please. On the brakes. Save fuel, please. How's the suspension feeling? Switch back to engine map B. Report tyre degradation. Does this tweak make a difference to the balance?

Makoto had a more solid technical understanding of the car, and was usually asked to do the “hardware reading” during a stint. In his absence, the team was asking Haru to take on that role, and in consequence, he felt that he was being told to be a completely different driver. Makoto looked at the bright side of Haru's situation.

“This way, you're able to set the car up to your taste!”, he said. “You and Nagisa are already quick, and you'll do even better if the car's to your liking.” Haru didn't react. To him, set-up was the sort of fastidious work he could do without. The previous year, Rei had done the job before a wheel was even turned, by applying all his theoretical research, and Haru hadn't been unhappy with the result. Nagisa had struggled with it a bit more.

“Nagisa and I don't like the same things”, Haru answered, slightly dejected. “I'd say something to Rei, he'd translate it for Jeremy, then Nagisa would take the car out, and come back saying 'too much oversteer'.”

“How many times did he spin today then?”, Makoto asked, while laughing. It cracked a smile out of Haru. “I really wish I was there with you guys.”

“I miss you too”, Haru thought to say.

“But it can't be helped”, Makoto continued. “I need this work experience for my degree, and it's going well.” Still studying to become a children's swimming instructor, he was in the middle of his internship. Because of this, he hadn't seen his friends off at the airport, nor could he join them until early September; he would arrive in time for the Technical and Administrative Verifications.

Until then, he was on duty at the ITSC Returns swim club. It was different from his first spell there: Coach Sasabe had hired more personnel, and thus he had more time to be a proper mentor to Makoto, who got to work with all the age groups, from the kindergarten children who mostly needed to be amused, to the middle-schoolers who were starting to take their swimming seriously. Goro went over Makoto's activity plans regularly to help him justify them in his report. He expected the young man who he already viewed as a colleague to pass with flying colours. The theory hadn't been easy for Makoto, but the internship had confirmed his desire to have a career in sports education, and made his efforts feel worthwhile. He expanded on it a little. Haru just listened. It always made him happy to just listen to Makoto talking about something he enjoyed.

 

The peaceful chat was soon over. The other three had finished washing (Gou had insisted that Nagisa should wait for Rei, much to his annoyance), and they tried to fit in front of the webcam around Haru. With Rei and Gou sitting either side of the dark-haired man, Nagisa sat on the floor, his head popping up in the lower part of the picture, then he tried laying across the other three's laps. They didn't like it. Rei suggested moving the laptop away so that Nagisa could sit normally.

“So, Haru tells me that the day was productive”, Makoto said, once the four had settled down. Rei confirmed, and started going into something about front damper bump settings, to which Nagisa pouted, and heaved his weight onto his neighbour saying “it's too late for that kind of stuff, Rei-chaaan...”

“More like too early for poor Mako-san”, Gou corrected. Rei pushed up his glasses. They reflected the light from the ceiling, thus they seemed to gleam on the video.

“I'll send you a report in an email later then”, he concluded quietly.

“I haven't looked online for any photos yet”, said Makoto. “Are there any evolutions on the other cars?”

“Samezuka have fairings on the rear wheels!”, Nagisa was quick to say.

“Yeah, about that, the BoP meeting after America opened up some possibilities for low-drag packages on certain cars”, Rei completed. Nagisa laid his head on Rei's shoulder again, and snored loudly. “Nagisa-kun! Can't I say _anything_?!”, Rei shouted. Makoto had an idea to calm the blond boy down.

“Nagisa, Haru didn't tell me how many times you spun today.”

“What?!”, Nagisa yelled, looking at Haru with wide eyes and an embarrassed smile. Haru was coy and remained silent, blushing a little. Gou giggled quietly, while Rei stepped in to avenge himself.

“Three times. That's twice more than me!”, he said proudly. A slightly shameful Nagisa put on a sad face.

“It's not my fault, Rei-chan”, he whined. “It's because Haru-chan's settings have”

“ **too much oversteer** ”, the other four joined in, even Makoto. They'd all heard the excuse. The three words said in chorus caused general hilarity. Rei scruffed the back of Nagisa's hair to tell him he hadn't meant anything nasty when he pointed out the spins. Nagisa knew, he was just playing along. There was a nearly synchronised sigh from the four team members on the sofa when their laughter died down.

“I should probably let you lot get some rest”, Makoto said. “There's just something I'd like to ask Rei quickly.” Gou started to get up, and thought that everyone else should do the same, imagining it would be personal. “You can stay, Gou”, Makoto told her. “I just want to ask about your first laps at Le Mans. I mean, it's a special track. How was it?”

Rei gulped. He wasn't expecting a question like this one.

“Erm... I think I see why it's such a big deal to drive here”, he replied. “The atmosphere, I guess it's different on race day, coming onto the pit straight with full grandstands... But even without that, you feel very alone over at Mulsanne. I agree, it's special... but I'm sorry, I don't think it's my favourite...”

“Aw, don't be sorry for that, Rei-chan”, Nagisa told him softly. “It's not my preferred circuit either. If I had to pick one, I'd probably say Laguna Seca: short and intense.”

“A bit like you, huh?”, Rei teased back. Nagisa returned a look that mixed angry eyes and a cheeky smile.

“Mako-chan's right, it's time for bed”, he said. “You're mean when you're tired, Rei-chan.” He got up, and started to go around the table when Haru spoke, returning to the previous topic.

“Le Mans is my favourite.” It made everyone freeze, stop giggling and listen. In their eyes, Haru was only passionate about swimming, so he just went from track to track and did his thing. He was fast, he could talk about what he was doing in the car, but he never opened up about how he felt when driving, or expressed personal preference other than wanting to avoid to take the starts. Unfortunately for the others, he wouldn't go any further.

“Just thought I'd say.” Inside, he had expected Makoto would ask him the question. Or, even if he didn't, that he'd want to know the answer.

***

_Commentator's Comment, 27/08/2015_

**TLM BATTLES TO LOOK OUT FOR #9 - IWATOBI v SAMEZUKA: HAS THE TIDE TURNED?**

_The Iwatobi Racing Team and Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed hit the circuits twelve months ago, diving straight into the deep end with a debut in the TLM. Both teams have shown flashes of brilliance, while maintaining an intense rivalry in the midfield since Donington last year. Where each of these two will end up at Le Mans this time is one thing, but which one will finish ahead is another that might be more of interest to them._

After all, no-one's expecting a repeat of Iwatobi's phenomenal 2014 performance. The 2015 grid is larger and better armed, laps times have decreased and reliability should have increased. But that doesn't mean Iwatobi won't manage to surprise us again. The pace is there, as shown by Nagisa Hazuki's fastest lap during the MRLS 4 Hours, albeit that was on soft tyres against a field settling for mediums. That said, strategic originality is another strong point of a team that doesn't hesitate to mix its tyres and vary its stint lengths. This aspect is harder to develop in a 24-hour race though, where it's a general rule that runs should be as long as possible.

Sadly, the encouraging signs can't hide an awful truth for the Iwatobi Racing Team: unlike the works Chrysler squad, which is romping away with podium upon podium, the privateers haven't scored a decent finish this year. Much of it is down to misfortune, with brake issues in Germany and a first-lap shunt at Laguna Seca, but there have also been some unconvincing performances, like at Laguna Seca, where Safety Car periods made up for Makoto Tachibana's timid run, or at Spa where all the drivers evidently struggled on a new track in treacherous conditions.

With Sosuke Yamazaki sliding out in the wet during the first hour, Spa was also a race to forget for Samezuka. Since then however, the Mazda has gone from strength to strength. The might of manufacturer backing has finally kicked in, the Furai is one of the most improved cars of the first half of 2015, and a driver rotation scheme was implemented as of Germany, where Momotaro Mikoshiba was given a try. The original trio upped its game as a result: Sosuke Yamazaki delivered a solid run at the Nürburgring, Aiichiro Nitori displayed some daring racecraft to earn the squad a podium in America, and Rin Matsuoka has been driving superbly, on the limit – and a bit beyond that during his duel with May in Brazil.

So has the tide turned since Nanase beat Matsuoka in Suzuka at the end of last season? On downforce tracks and in short races where aggression and determination pay off, yes. The two cars are evenly matched, but the mood has become far more confident at Samezuka. However, Le Mans is a unique beast, and on the endless Mulsanne straights, the Chrysler will stretch its legs. The TLM is also a gruelling enduro, and one the Furai hasn't finished yet, while, judging by last year, the ME Four-Twelve is more likely to make it out of a war of attrition, although it's still not bulletproof.

_**Our bet:** _

Iwatobi have the superior car for one lap around the Circuit de la Sarthe, so Haru Nanase (and probably Nagisa Hazuki too) should beat Samezuka in qualifying. Into the evening, better consistency and stamina from the Mazda drivers could close the match up, if they can avoid errors, but ultimately, the victor might be decided by mechanical problems, which would be a pity...


	12. Scenes from the Iwatobi Motorhome 2 - Qualifying

**Thursday 10 th September 2015**

It was unusual for Haru to feel disappointed after a run in the car. Most often, he was neutral, maybe a little tired out, but not unhappy. This time, even if there had been no radio communication to confirm it, something was telling him that he had lacked speed. When he saw his best time, he had asked Rei to go back out straight away and try to improve. Denied. There was a practice plan the team had to stick to, and the soft tyre sets had been used up. The weekend's race would be long, and grid position wasn't primordial. Haru's time would remain on the scoreboard, well outside the top ten; he was going to have to live with that. Dissatisfied, he left the garage and went to take an extra long bath.

With the rest of the team working on the end of the session, the motorhome was empty. Haru was alone, immersed in his swimsuit, in near silence. A general rumbling from the circuit and the ticking from a clock on the wall were the only sounds beside his breathing, when he wasn't under water. Beneath the surface, the growl of the cars became a softer droning noise. The conditions were right for Haru to clear his mind and contemplate his situation. What could he do about it?

He re-emerged, gasped for air and shook the drips off his head. The clock showed midnight approaching. He stayed in the bath. There would be nothing to celebrate in the garage. He thought some more, then got out to check the final positions. There had been one significant change since he last saw the standings – one that made up his mind. He dressed lightly, wandered down to the lounge, and waited.

Soon, Haru heard the sound of his friends chatting while they walked back through the dimly lit paddock. He would recognise those voices among millions. He stood in anticipation, moments before they entered. Nagisa and Makoto were still in their overalls, Makoto's top half was open to cool him off. He had been the last driver of the night. Rei and Gou, in their team shirts, blue and yellow respectively, also looked like they could do with a breather after a long session. Makoto smiled in Haru's direction, then noticed his serious, preoccupied expression.

“Haru”, he called, “is something the matter?”

“Can we discuss the start, guys?”, Haru asked shyly.

“Erm, perhaps”, Makoto answered, turning towards the others who also stopped and looked back.

“What is it, Mako-chan?”, Nagisa enquired.

“Haru wants to talk about the race start”, Makoto replied.

“I'd rather not”, Rei dismissed. “We need some sleep first. Saturday's strategy is tomorrow's headache.” The previous year, the starting driver debate had been heated. Rei had already felt Haru on edge after his qualifying run, and he didn't have the energy to manage another one of his firm stands. But Haru had an idea that was important to him, and he wanted it out on the table.

“I volunteer to take the start”, he announced anyway.

Gou, Makoto and Nagisa's eyes all widened. They immediately realised how remarkable the statement was. Rei's eyes rolled in the face of Haru's stubbornness. He sighed, before noticing the silent awe of those beside him.

“Are... are you sure, Haruka?”, Gou asked sheepishly. “You always say you hate packs, and the traffic really bothered you today.”

“This is why we need to rest first...”, Rei added quietly, but Nagisa spoke over him.

“Hey, don't try to talk him out of it, Gou-chan!”, he intervened. “A Haru-chan start is a sight we've never seen before, and I'm sure it's really cool to watch! Come on, Rei-chan, let's talk about this!”

“I said no”, Rei replied firmly while pushing his glasses back. “We decide this tomorrow.” With that, he turned and walked to the stairs.

“In that case, I'll be voting for Haru-chan tomorrow!”, said Nagisa, looking proudly at his uneasy-looking fellow driver. He then followed Rei, who answered back that “it's not a vote”. “Ah, you know what I mean!”, was the last the three who remained downstairs heard. Gou had also begun to move, but paused. She saw Haru's clenched fists loosen up as Makoto compassionately tapped him on the shoulder, saying “I'm sure you'll get your wish. Let's go to bed now.”

 

Haru laid above the sheets while his room-mate washed and changed. His brain was still too active to relax, kept busy by his uncertainty. He was puzzled. He thought he was better than this. Had he truly given it his best? What was missing? What sort of performance during the opening stint, if he was going to be allowed to start, would redeem him?

The tall, muscular and refreshed Makoto exited the bathroom putting his pyjama top on, and sat on his bed rather than getting in, which was unusual. He had a hunch as to why Haru had been so eager to put himself forward to take the start of the 24-hour race, and wanted to be sure. Also, making Haru open up about it would probably do him some good and help him rest.

“You're unhappy with the qualifying result, aren't you?”, Makoto asked softly. Haru didn't react, but Makoto knew he'd answer. He waited patiently, letting Haru choose his words.

“I”m sorry I didn't put a good lap together”, he eventually said.

“Don't be sorry”, Makoto answered. “No-one's made any comment. There's so much more traffic here this time; ten extra cars really do make a difference.”

“I know. I just don't want to use it as an excuse. I've let the team down. I shouldn't have wound up slower than last year. No-one else did, why did I?” Makoto was taken aback by how negative Haru was.

“Well, last year was exceptional for us”, he explained. His words tried to reassure Haru. “I guess we didn't have the same room for progress as others.”

“I'm not going to accept that I can't go faster. Like you, remember?”

That wiped the comforting smile off of Makoto's face.

“I remember.” He slipped under his sheets, and Haru did the same, thinking that he'd closed the discussion. Makoto continued though.

“I remember what you told me. You said I didn't have to catch up to my team-mates. You might feel that you have something to correct, but in reality, you owe us nothing. No-one's pointing the finger at you. So...” He turned his head and finished: “do you really want to make up for something that no-one's blaming you for?”

Haru gulped in the other bed. Disappointment with his performance was what had started his train of thought. He went through it again, in fast-forward, and got to the end. The final, decisive factor.

“No. I genuinely do want to start”, was his conclusion.

“Well, if you're sure of that, I'll support it”, Makoto said, his smile returning. “I'm glad you finally want to drive the beginning of a race!”

The light went out, but Makoto had another question about Haru on his mind. He called out, and his friend replied. He hadn't fallen asleep just yet.

“I'm wondering... I haven't taken the opportunity to ask you yet”, Makoto began carefully. “About the Worlds. Are you... or were you... unhappy with your performance there?” The darkness meant that he couldn't see the effect of his question on his friend.

“It's been over one month, Makoto”, Haru replied quickly. “Whatever I felt, I'm over it.”

“But it wasn't what you were hoping for, right?”

“I didn't know what to hope for. I was there to learn how to manage such an event. It could have been worse. I could have stopped in the middle like in my last year of high.”

“I guess”, Makoto sighed. Sometimes there was no pushing Haru to express himself. But there was a striking parallel between his swimming some weeks prior and his driving earlier that day: when it mattered the most, he hadn't beaten his personal bests.

***

 **TOON LE MANS QUALIFYING PRACTICE CLASSIFICATION** (after the two sessions)

Practiced: 45 (30 X1, 15 X2)

1\. Double-D Maserati Corse - #19 Maserati Birdcage 75 - Ed/Edd/Eddy - 3'37"530

2\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - 3'37"744

3\. DMLR - #3 Maybach Exelero - Dexter/Mandark/Dee Dee - 3'37"808

...

16\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 3'40"616

17\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 3'40"824

...

31\. (1st X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - 3'57"731

32\. (2nd X2) Alpine Looney Tunes - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 3'57"957

33\. (3rd X2) Weasel Speedlab - #85 Ford Visos - I.M.Weasel/I.R.Baboon/I.B.Red Guy - 3'58"461

***

**INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS: DOUBLE-D REACTS TO THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS**

**Double-D on qualifying.** _“Pole at Le Mans is obviously a major career achievement. I couldn't get to sleep on Thursday night, I was so stoked to have won the pole!”_ The fastest driver in qualifying for the 18 th Toon Le Mans, Edd explained his success by praising a new Pirelli “super-soft” compound that he thinks made the difference, a sentiment echoed by the Italian manufacturer's other partner teams, Team7 (9th) and Pataki Sport (12th). _“No-one uses soft tyres in such a long race, so it made sense to have something extra sticky as the third compound in our allocation, just for qualifying.”_ The #19 Maserati clocked the fastest time in an extremely exciting Thursday session which saw a large majority of cars improve drastically upon their 2014 times. _“_ _The competition's getting really hot right now, and that qualifying session was insane! Everybody's out there giving it 100%, and we're going to have one hell of a fight on our hands at the start of the race.”_ On his team's chances of winning: _“Volkswagen, Peugeot, Chrysler: they're the favourites. We upset them by stealing pole, but I still see us as outsiders.”_

 **Double-D on the future of the Series.** The 2016 provisional calendar is already out, due to an early start to the season in March in Australia. The seven-round series sees several important changes, such as the USA race moving to Road America, and the race immediately after Le Mans is simply marked “TBA”. The modifications were made following driver concerns that a return to pre-2014 grid numbers will make some circuits unsuitable. _“I love Laguna Seca, we got our first big win there”_ , Edd told us. _“I like Donington too, it has a great flow, and that very cosy, British club racing feel to it! But some guys out there are getting uncomfortable with the traffic levels. Maybe these tracks are getting too short for this many cars, although personally I'm not bothered. The traffic conditions are the same for everyone. As long as I like the circuits on the calendar, I'll be a happy bunny.”_ Another novelty next season will be the addition of a championship trophy, awarded over the TLM and the best four results outside of the 24-hour classic. Edd isn't hugely fussed by this, but he does support the announced opening of the engine regulations due to apply in 2017. _“The cars we have are good, but some are using old technology, shall we say. It would be good if manufacturers could showcase more recent, more efficient engines, current production engines, and more hybrid solutions, in these supercar concepts that the fans really like the look of. Ferrari has some high-performance hybrid components, maybe they can be added to the Birdcage 75 in the future.”_

 **Double-D on Team Rocket's promotion to X1 in 2016.** Edd won't be around at Maserati though when/if that happens. The constructor announced this morning that they have awarded their factory effort to Team Rocket for next year. Having shown utter dominance with Alfa Romeo in the “small class” for the last year and a half, the squad has more than earned its promotion, and Meowth will return to the cockpit after two years on pit wall, joining Jessie and James at the wheel. We asked Edd about how his team had dealt with the news. He told us that they had known about the change for some time. _“We're not unhappy or disappointed. On the contrary, it's going to be great for the show to have Team Rocket back in the top class. Until then, I think we've shown that there are no hard feelings, and that we'll be pushing hard to get success with Maserati to the end.”_ As for next season, _“we have a plan, but obviously we can't talk about it right now.”_ Double-D Racing being the future BMW factory squad may well be the worst-kept secret in the paddock, but it is still, officially, under wraps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever, the results are short-form, but I have decided to put up the [full entry list](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/139616702501/as-chapter-12-goes-up-in-a-minute-heres-the) on my blog to show which cars and characters I'm working with.


	13. Round 5 - France

“Nagisa Hazuki, your car has placed third in this morning's wet warm-up, an absolutely spectacular reaction from you guys after qualifying 17th. Will you be looking forward to the rain tonight to pounce on the opposition?”

“ _True, Haru and Mako were very fast this morning, which is nice, but myself, I'm not a wet-weather enthusiast. I'll enjoy pushing in the dry this afternoon, and we'll see what we do when the rain arrives.”_

**Saturday 12 th September 2015**

The constant drizzle stopped just after the morning warm-up, and when the time came to bring the cars out for display on the main straight, the track was dry. While the mechanics wheeled the machines through gaps in the pit wall, the drivers were waiting around the back of the garages to get into their cabriolets for the parade, which was to be headed by the new TLM trophy that would be up for grabs. A couple of teams could win it permanently, like Spirou's squad had done the year before, by claiming a third victory in the event. Of course, the boys of Iwatobi and Samezuka weren't thinking about that. 30 cars was the biggest field a single category had even seen in the AERS, and they were smack in the middle of it. Makoto was concerned about the treacherous first combination of corners – a fast right followed by heavy braking for the left-right Dunlop chicane –, and noted that the car that had punted him out of contention at Laguna Seca was right behind the Chrysler again.

“If they haven't learned their lesson, they'll probably get a penalty”, Sosuke commented. It was of little comfort for Makoto. Nagisa, meanwhile, was struggling to contain his excitement.

“Oh man, I can't wait for this to get underway! Waiting here, it feels like it won't be long, but there's the sighting laps, the grid, the warm-up lap...”

“And then it's Samezuka versus Iwatobi, as ever!”, Nitori remarked. The four looked at the remaining two, Haru and Rin, who had both thus far been silent.

“It's us versus the 24 hours, Ai”, Rin mumbled, reminding him of the official objective.

“I sincerely do hope you make it”, Nagisa intervened. “To finish a 24-hour relay is something special.”

The call to the cars interrupted the conversation at that point, and the train of drop-tops got moving shortly afterwards. Once again, everything was ready on pit straight, with the grid hosts on one side, and the racecars, cockpit doors open, and the mechanics and engineers standing in formation on the other. The big clock showed the time, and just beneath it, the official stopwatch was stuck on “24:00:00”. It would stay like that for another hour or so. In the grandstands opposite and above the garages, thousands of spectators were cheering the arrival of the athletes or taking photographs. There was no getting used to such a big crowd, even for Rin and Haru who had competed at the World Aquatics Championships in July-August.

The Mazda and the Chrysler sat next to each other, with the mean, low, black, red and white machine in front. Nagisa mischieviously asked Rin why the rear wheel covers weren't on his car.

“We're putting them on on the grid”, he replied sharply. “But you shouldn't be ogling, that's espionage!”, he scolded lightly, giving Nagisa a flick on the nose. Immediately after, Rin was handed his helmet and gloves. It was time for him to go over to the other side of the track for the classic Le Mans-style ceremonial start. Before he moved, he sneaked a peek at the blue and white car's rear wheels.

“Are those new brake ducts?”, he asked, and turned away, leaving Nagisa in shock at the cheek. Rin loooked back with a wide smile, and walked on, donning his balaclava as he did.

Once he was equipped and standing next to his flag holder, he saw Haru arrive next to him, putting on his final glove.

“You know, Haru”, Rin spoke, “I said it was us against the 24 hours earlier. That doesn't mean you should expect to have it easy against me.”

“It's no use, Rin”, Haru replied. “I only drive fast, and I'm only starting so I can beat you.” Rin cackled under his helmet.

“So it's true: you couldn't stomach your defeat in qualifying. I'm looking forward to this. You will see how different I am compared to Suzuka last year!”

At 2:14, the siren sounded, calling the drivers to attention and ordering the engineers to stand behind the cars. Only one mechanic or engineer would be allowed to help each pilot in and make sure that they buckled up properly, and a marshal would give the signal when it was safe to drive off. The crews looked on at the line of drivers, while the spectators got a clearer view of the vehicles. In between, the competitors stood, focusing on the head marshal's green flag, ready to run across the track. Rin turned to his head to the right briefly. Haru caught it out of the corner of his eye, and looked his rival straight in the helmet. Just like at the international university swim meet a year earlier.

Their smiles were hidden, but, from as far away as the pit wall, Makoto, Nagisa, Rei, Gou, Sosuke, Ai and Seijuro all saw the gleam in their eyes.

“Oh shit”, Gou let slip, before slapping her mouth shut. Hopefully no-one had heard that. Thankfully, no-one had. The others too were struck by the look their drivers had given each other. Nagisa sported a broad smile, while Makoto seemed more conflicted.

“Interesting”, Seijuro remarked. “Typical”, Sosuke moaned.

It was clear to everyone that sparks were going to fly between the two, and it showed as soon as the flag was waved to send the cars on their sighting laps. Haru and Rin sprinted across, the latter may even have been the quickest of all 45 starters in the dash on foot.

At Iwatobi, Rei assisted Haru to get in the car. He took advantage of the moment to remind him of the fact that these were sighting laps.

“Do your system checks, Haru. Don't go after Rin”, he warned.

“I know, I know”, Haru replied. “Shall I do three laps to lighten the fuel load a bit more?” The rotary Mazda screamed to life at that point and Rin pulled away gently. It distracted Rei for a second or two. But he had heard the question, and got round to answer it.

“Only if they do.”

With that, Haru was strapped in and ready to go. The big quad-turbo V12 ignited in turn and the car rumbled away on the limiter. Haru would be allowed to accelerate once he reached the Dunlop Curve. Rei sprinted back to his team's booth to inform him of what Samezuka were doing, and to tell him what to look for in the car's behaviour. He also asked Haru to pay attention to the tarmac to see if any patches of dampness were left over. Then he told him to be careful at the end of the lap: if he missed the entry to pit lane, that would be the end of his sighting laps, he'd have to stop on the grid.

As it was, Rin only did two sighting laps. Rei ultimately let Haru choose whether or not to do a third. He decided to stop at two when he was told that continuing would mean his first race stint would be shortened by a lap. A few of the leading crews did another tour, although it was impossible to tell how much fuel the cars were carrying. The commentators were looking forward to everyone finally showing their hands, but until then, the thought of a top team bluffing or going for an alternate strategy had them excited.

 

“Fantasio, one of the 2014 TLM champions: what sort of start are you expecting this time out? Something conservative like last year, or is it going to be hell for leather?”

“ _Ah, I think there will be a mixture of strategies, it will be interesting. Certainly some early birds will try to hit the front and get away. Chrysler, Volkswagen and Maybach... They're going to start strong and attack, I think.”_

“Now you're trying to be clever here. Chrysler, VW and Maybach: you've mentioned everyone around you but yourselves! Does this mean you're in the early-bird group too?”

“ _Haha, maybe... First we need to hope that we are free of a KERS problem this time! If yes, then we'll probably have the pace to follow anyone.”_

“Ok, Fantasio, best of luck to you and the guys at Peugeot. Starting fourth, and going for a fourth TLM win.”

 

In the middle of the X1 grid, Haru had agreed a last-minute spoiler adjustment with Jeremy when Nagisa burst into the conversation with his agitated enthusiasm.

“Oooh, Haru-chan, I'm so excited!”, he squeaked. “I saw that special rivalry between you and Rin-chan ignite! This is going to be awesome!” Rei tapped him on the head with his clipboard.

“Alright, Nagisa-kun, that's enough theatricals”, he said.

“Aw, I'm just encouraging him, Rei-chan”, Nagisa replied.

“Ok, you've done that. Now let him prepare himself as he likes”, Rei finished, before mumbling “knowing him, he'll want it all his own way...”

Haru did have his own routine before a swimming competition, but it was too short for this event. He had another 15-20 minutes before he had to put his helmet back on. He had a flask of tea nearby, he sipped from it every now and then, and simply tried to relax. That wasn't easy to do, since Makoto was anxious about him. He was wondering what an all-out duel between Haru and Rin was going to result in. So far that year, Rin had shown what kind of driver he was: a hard-pushing attacker, and a tenacious defender. Makoto could only imagine how forceful he was going to be against his fiercest rival.

“Nothing bad's going to happen, Makoto”, said Haru, who guessed correctly why he was feeling unsure. “Rin likes racing me too much to pull a foul move.”

“Whereas you, Haru...?”, Makoto asked.

“I want to beat him, not disappoint him”, Haru replied. “We're here to have fun, right?”

The discussion was cut short by a grid reporter who wanted a word from Iwatobi's starting driver. Haru had no excuse to not do the interview this time, and he diligently accepted to talk. After all, it ticked off another minute of waiting. Makoto, meanwhile, was left with the word “fun” in his head.

“Haru... Here to have fun?”

It was an unusual word for the extremely reserved friend of his to use.

 

“Haru Nanase, runner-up last year in that epic finish. You started 7th in 2014, a similar time only gets you 17th this time out. Can you step up in the race?”

“ _That's the idea. That's definitely what we plan to do.”_

“Well, that sounds feasible, based on this morning's session, and I spoke with your team-mate, Nagisa Hazuki: he said he's not personally looking forward to the rain tonight. You set the third time in warm-up, so what about you?”

“ _I don't know if we can capitalise in the wet. I'm not looking too much into the practice times. In the race, the weather is the same for everyone, we'll just have to wait and see.”_

“Haru Nanase, a man of few cryptic words, as always. Thank you, Haru, best of luck.”

 

Gou stared at Haru with a hand covering half her face.

“Whoa, that bad?”, he asked.

“You haven't a clue how to answer questions, Haruka”, she replied, with a dismayed sigh. She had read a _Top Swimmer_ special issue in July. Somewhere in the mass of photos of muscular young men, there were profiles and interviews of each of Japan's athletes for the Worlds on double pages. Haru's stood out as it was only on one page – visibly, the journalists hadn't managed to get enough material out of him, despite a couple of questions on his “double duty” with the motor racing team.

 

With five minutes to go before the formation lap began, Haru started stretching. Not far away, just ahead in the other lane, Rin was doing the same. They seemed to be executing identical routines simultaneously. The sharp-teethed man's helmet and gloves were placed on the roof of the car. Seijuro came round to give him some final instructions face to face.

“Matsuoka, the start is the most watched moment of the race”, he said. “I'm counting on you to make sure we get noticed. In the first stint, you can give it everything.”

“Thank you, Seijuro”, Rin replied. He was glad he was going to be unrestrained for his duel with Haru, although his team boss was looking ahead rather than behind.

“The top ten is probably out of reach, but you should be able to grab a few places”, he added. Rin agreed, but he knew that the Chrysler behind him would give him a hard time on the straights.

Moments later, the starting drivers were in their cars, the mechanics cleared the track and stood either side of the pit straight as the cars were let go on their one and only warm-up lap. Once the race engineers had returned to pit wall, final preparations could be made.

“Final systems check, Haruka. What are your readings?”, Rei asked. Haru clearly gave him the numbers on his dashboard when he had the chance, on the long first part of the Hunaudières. “Good, telemetry is ok”, Rei replied, before sharply telling Nagisa off. “You can stay here if you're quiet. I mean it, Nagisa-kun, I need a calm environment right now so I don't forget anything!” Nagisa wanted to witness the sight and sound of 45 cars roaring by in close sequence from the pit wall, and was obviously getting excited.

“Are we done for checks, Rei?”, Haru asked.

“Give me a sec... Er, I think so. Just pay attention to your tyre temps now”, Rei advised.

“Ok. Off we go then. Call me if something's going wrong”, Haru concluded. It was time for pit wall to leave him to do the driving, or so he thought.

“There's the start settings to go through yet”, Rei replied. Haru was shocked.

“We're not in start config?!”, he reacted loudly.

“It's nothing big, Haru!”, Rei answered tensely. “When the grid forms, you'll just have to re-set the engine map to A and disengage the rev limiter.”

“I'm doing it now”, Haru announced, eager to get the tedious formalities over with.

“No, wait!”, Rei shouted back. “My fuel calculations are based on a full formation lap in config W. Repeat: do not change engine and T/C settings until grid forms!”

Haru let out a reluctant sigh with the microphone closed. “He sure is freaking out this race”, he thought to himself. “Surely it doesn't make that much of a difference!”

“As you wish”, he said. He didn't want to try Rei's patience any further, and he couldn't let his tactician's obvious stress get to him. He looked back at the car ahead, the Mazda. Rin's Mazda. He focused back on the prospect of going up against him in a duel at the biggest event of the season.

 

The crowd stood as the field thundered past the French flag that signalled the start of the race. While flooring the throttle, Haru caught a glimpse of the big stopwatch, which was now counting down to zero, and Nagisa's blond head peeking out between the cabins on right-hand wall with a wide grin. Then he had to look straight ahead and take care of where the other cars were braking. As expected, he came close to contact in the first turns, with the back end of the number 30 Citroën on one hand, and with the number 21 Shelby's flank on the other. Haru's lane seemed to have the slower get-away, and he was side-by-side with Little Boss Graves all the way into the Esses de la Forêt, where he was well-placed to keep the position. Rin had managed to get the better of Alex Vasquez though.

“Man, Rin isn't wasting time!”, Haru thought. Just out of Tertre Rouge, Jeremy asked if there had been any contact.

“None whatsoever”, Haru replied. “I'm going after Rin.” As he spoke, he was lining himself up in the Citroën's slipstream, and the better grunt of the Chrysler allowed him to complete the pass in the first Hunaudières chicane. The cameras were focusing on the battle for the overall lead, so it went unnoticed. So much so, that Jeremy continued talking on the radio during the action. Haru didn't listen. He saw that Rin hadn't made further progress, so, as far as he was concerned, the chase was on.

Late in the Suzuka 8 Hours the previous Autumn, Haru had closed in on Rin easily because the red-haired man was told to preserve the car. There was no such caution this time, and it was considerably harder for Haru to get in a position to make a pass. He knew that his rival had better downforce levels, so his best chance was to use the long backstraights, but on the second lap, he realised that Rin was using the tow from the car ahead, the other Shelby, to increase his top speed and shield himself from attack. Haru didn't want to wait another however-many laps to see if X2 traffic could disrupt Rin's rhythm. He wanted to overtake sooner rather than later.

He decided to get alongside and brake later at the first Hunaudières chicane on lap three. It proved insufficient though, as Rin had once again been aided by the draught from the car ahead, and he forced the issue in left-hand bend by sliding back on the inside of Haru. Rin then squeezed him in the final right-hand element of the complex, cutting off the freestyler's momentum. As a result, on the second segment of the run to Mulsanne, Haru had to defend from Clemont in the third Kanto Volkswagen instead.

Rin had won that round, but there were twenty-three hours and fifty minutes to go.

 

Just before the start of lap five, Rei noticed something had changed on the car's settings.

“Haruka, did you touch the traction control?”, he asked.

“Yes. I took off two steps”, the driver replied. “I want more turning under power.”

“He wants to take tighter lines”, Jeremy commented. “He's going to make a dive for it.” Haru had closed back up to Rin, and an attack was imminent. Rei became nervous again. Gou sensed it, and looked at him as if to say “let him do it”, like she had done a year earlier.

In the car, Haru was working out how his change was affecting his cornering. Out of the Dunlop chicane, he obtained a tighter exit under power without losing much, nothing the tow from the Mazda on the upcoming straights couldn't correct.

“Right, let's just feign a move into the chicanes...”, he thought. Placing himself nearer the middle of the road, he also eliminated the possibility of being attacked from behind. Under braking, he gave himself the right distance with the car ahead to be able to accelerate unhindered. The slipstream did the rest: even with the number 12 unwittingly giving Rin some assistance, Haru was alongside as the cars came over the Mulsanne crest, and held the inside line for the braking zone. There was only a right-hand bend to follow, no counter-steering could help Rin this time, so the Mazda had to stand its ground by giving the Chrysler the bare minimum space on the inside. Rin intended to constrain Haru's line on exit, but Haru responded by nudging his opponent towards the outside under acceleration. Running over the kerb, Rin was unsettled, lost momentum and the position. Now it was his turn to be busy defending against the Volkswagen, and he found himself unable to attack the Chrysler in the main overtaking spots on the next lap.

Haru had won that round, but there were twenty-three hours and forty minutes to go.

_**15:20 PM – Chryslers making progress.** Like last year, it's a strong start from the ME Four-Twelves. Each has gained two places in 5 laps: Arnold, #16, from 5 th to 3rd, Stinky Peterson, #15, from 13th to 11th (took the #6 Cadillac last lap), and Haru Nanase, #17, from 17th to 15th, having just passed Rin Matsuoka (#22 Mazda) at Mulsanne._

**@IwatobiRC – 12/09/15 15:23 CET**

Lead scrap is cool, but lookie over here: Haru in a 5-way fight with @Samazduka, both @RepCityRacin cars and @AudiKanto 10! :3 #TLM Nagisa;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Samezuka's social media name is a Rin joke of course! I've checked, none of these accounts appear to exist...


	14. TLM Hour 9

**TOON LE MANS RACE CLASSIFICATION AFTER 7 HOURS (10:00 PM)**

Started: 45 (30 X1, 15 X2) / Running: 42 (28 X1, 14 X2)

1\. DMLR - #3 Maybach Exelero - Dexter/Mandark/Dee Dee - 108 LAPS

2\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - +0'26"701

3\. VAG Kanto 9 - #9 Volkswagen Nardo - G.Oak/Dawn/May - +1'15"074 (5 more cars on lead lap)

...

14\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 106 LAPS

...

26\. (1st X2) 60 Ans Alpine Looney Tunes - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 102 LAPS

27\. (2nd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - +2'53"032

28\. (3rd X2) Warner Bros. & Sis. - #99 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Y.Warner/W.Warner/D.Warner - +2'54"178 (4 more cars on lead lap in class)

...

30\. (26th X1) Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 102 LAPS - IN PIT

***

**Saturday 12 th September 2015**

It was surprising that a one-hour nap could be so efficient. Rin didn't feel any residual tiredness. A fresh shower made him more alert. An ache was starting to creep in, but that was nothing a massage couldn't soothe. He decided to report to pit wall, then see the physio to be in top condition for his next stint.

Once he stepped outside, though, the ambient darkness cast a shadow on his resolve. It reminded him of the previous year, when he had been yanked out of bed at 1 in the morning to oversee a mechanical issue, and it was one that proved terminal for the Mazda. He shivered, and opened his eyes wider to get more of the street light into them.

When he reached the garage, just before 11 PM, Ai was suited up and ready to have his second run in the car. Rin had just enough time to pat him on the back and give him a thumbs up. The driver and the mechanics were then called forward. While waiting for the pit stop to unfold, Rin checked the standings. Samezuka were two laps down, and still in a tight battle for 13th.

“Iwatobi aren't in that fight anymore”, he remarked. They were off the first page, outside the top 20. The display changed, and Rin noticed with shock that they were nearly off the second page too. They had slumped to eleven laps down. “They've hit problems”, thought Rin. Sure enough, the TV pictures were showing a blue and white car stranded behind the barriers on the Mulsanne straight, and someone in Iwatobi overalls was working in the engine bay. The man's head popped out: it was Makoto! Makoto was trying to fix his machine! Rin had never seen him like this. Focused yet visibly frustrated, his forehead was smeared with oil where he had wiped some sweat off with his dirty hands. He put his helmet back on so he could use the radio. The feed then cut to pit lane, where Sosuke was incoming. Rin observed the exchange between his tall friend and the considerably shorter Ai. From the tactician's cabin beyond the car, Seijuro was also looking on. It was a routine stop for tyres, fuel and driver change.

Once the prototype had left, Rin carefully hopped over to pit wall, where Sosuke had removed his helmet and gloves, and was enjoying some water.

“Ah, Matsuoka, are you rested?”, Seijuro asked.

“I'm alright”, Rin answered. “I'll just see the physio in a moment. How about you, Sosuke? How was the drive?”

“It's still crazy out there, no-one's letting up”, the dark-haired man replied, pouting. He expanded a little, but he soon got distracted by Seijuro's communication with the car.

“A vibration at the back, you say? How severe is it?”

“What?!”, a surprised Sosuke butted in. Seijuro told him to wait a moment. His driver talked him through the sensation he was getting through Mulsanne, a slow right-hander, and Indianapolis, a fast right-hander.

“Alright, Nitori, stop if you need to, we'll put the car in the garage to have a look at it. Over”, he finished. He took off the headphones and turned to the other two drivers. “Yeah, so Nitori's reporting some vibration at the back end. Probably the suspension. He can drive with it, so not to worry.”

“I didn't notice it”, Sosuke said. “Could it be the touch with Nanase earlier?”

“Ai would have noticed it during his first stint”, Rin responded. “Tell me, Sosuke, did you have a close encounter with another car during that run?”

“I... I made no contact!”, Sosuke answered defensively. “It could be damage from debris, I guess, but I don't remember a vibration appearing suddenly.”

“Then it's probably wear”, said Seijuro, ending the subtle accusations between Rin and Sosuke. “You've both adapted your driving to it, and Nitori has realised something's changed, that's all.”

The two friends were dismissed and walked back to the garage, just as the Furai screamed by. Rin guessed that his massage had better be quick. When Ai would return for repairs, it wasn't impossible that he'd want to be relieved. Sosuke, meanwhile, was looking forward to a rest. He could expect a good hour and a half in the motorhome. He put his kit in his pigeon-hole, and the pair were about to leave when a gasp of shock was heard amongst the mechanics. They looked at the TV screen: their car was beached at Tertre Rouge! Rin instantly ran back over to pit wall, looking left just long enough to see if another vehicle was coming, and demanded to know if Ai was ok.

“I don't think there was contact, something just snapped!”, the driver was saying. “I'm getting out to inspect.” Rin was relieved, although he had never heard Ai sound so furious. His body language was agitated too. He gestured with the marshals at the corner he was stuck at, who were insisting that the car be towed to a gap in the tyre wall to make it safe, so Race Control could remove the Slow Zone the situation had generated as quickly as possible. It was standard procedure, and Makoto had received the same treatment a quarter of an hour earlier when he had stopped a few kilometres from there. His plight to get a makeshift repair to work – just for long enough to get the car back to the pits where his problem could be dealt with properly, that was all he asked for! – was continuing.

Meanwhile, a replay of Ai's accident appeared. As he had reported, there was no other competitor to make contact with, and it looked like a sudden failure on the rear-left. It was around that end of the track that he had first sensed something unusual, and that corner of the car was loaded heavily in the fast right-hander. The live feed returned, showing the leading Maybach team performing a pit stop.

For a couple of long minutes, the broadcast focus was on something else, which made the Samezuka crew nervous. As long as Nitori was outside the car and assisting the trackside volunteers in pushing the stricken machine to safety, they couldn't contact him. They had no news. Suddenly, the race engineer and the chief mechanic got a call.

“Miko-senpai, the rear-left suspension's failed. I've cleared the wheel so the tyre doesn't rub. I'm starting the car up to bring it back to you.” If Ai was telling the truth, Seijuro was rather impressed. The cameras picked up the limping Mazda as it started on its way down the endless Mulsanne straight in the pitch black. It wasn't clear on the pictures that the rear-left wheel arch was missing, but it was obvious that the floor of the car was scraping the tarmac, letting of sparks continually, and that the handling was tricky. Aiichiro was doing his utmost best to keep the car driving in one lane, so as to make life easier for the others. He took the escape route through the first of the two chicanes which punctuated the Hunaudières, and weaving between the tyre barriers was just as difficult as holding the car in a straight line.

At least he was moving. His team-mates could look forward to their machine returning to the pits and being repaired. The Iwatobi Chrysler hadn't moved an inch for the last fifteen minutes. Makoto was too concentrated on his task to notice the Furai gurgle by miserably at half the normal speed. Likewise, Ai didn't think of Makoto's presence just behind the guard rail.

As he continued on, footage of his actions at Tertre Rouge surfaced. “I've cleared the wheel so the tyre doesn't rub”, Seijuro remembered hearing. Sure enough, Nitori had ripped off the whole rear-left wing of the car with his nearly bare hands and left the marshals a carbon-fibre souvenir! The tactician was in shock, while the crew chief next to him smiled.

“There's more where that came from”, he remarked. “Looks like the rest of the car is working fine. Fingers crossed he keeps control of it.” He still had half the lap, six kilometres, to go, and the complexes he had to get through, like the daunting Porsche Curves, had no run-off like the chicanes on the Hunaudières. Race Control decided to put that particularly quick, tight and perilous section under Slow Zone rules when Ai reached it.

Another couple of minutes later, the Mazda arrived, the rear-left corner dragging on the ground like the feet of a discontent child being pulled along by his parents in the supermarket, the wheel hanging on by the axle. Nitori had succeeded. He got out and immediately asked for some water. While he received congratulations from Sosuke, the only member of the team who had time for that, Rin found a plastic bottle designed for the car, with a long tube that Ai threaded up the underside of his helmet.

“That was... the worst handling ever”, he stuttered. The three drivers took a step back to watch the mechanics work around the damaged area of the car. It wasn't long before the chief engineers were called in, and they looked worried about the car's floor.

It didn't take long for a verdict to land.

“The chassis is cracked. It's not safe to run with that and it's too long to repair. Sorry, boys. We're retiring again.”

In a sense, it was a good thing that it had been swift. It meant there wouldn't be disappointment after a long battle to save the car, and a long, anxious wait for the drivers. Seijuro made a statement to the press and commentators outside the garage, on his way to clear up the pit wall cabin. Once everyone had collected their things and had returned to the bay, the door came down, making the retirement clear to the spectators. All this time, Ai had kept his helmet on, ready – hoping – to go back out. He was saddened by the fact that he could take it off.

“You did everything right, Nitori”, Sosuke comforted. Like everyone in the team, he was unhappy. He reckoned some amusement would help them get over it. “If we change quickly, it might not be too late to get to a concert”, he said to anyone who was listening. Ai nodded vacantly. Rin was watching the video broadcast.

“Great idea, Sosuke!”, Seijuro's powerful voice intervened, snapping both of the boys out of their trance. “I have to stay here to supervise the closing, but you guys go for it! You've earned it. I'll catch up with you.”

Sosuke had to force the others along somewhat. Back at the motorhome, while he washed and changed, Rin continued to scrutinise the live timing, listening to the radio commentary. Sosuke saw him staring at his phone when he came out of the bathroom.

“Rin, come on”, he said. “It's time to get your mind off the race. Look up the bands instead!”

“Bingo!”, Rin whispered. It was totally unrelated to Sosuke's question, he had hardly been listening. He walked out of the bedroom and knocked on next bedroom door, where Nitori was preparing.

“Ai, be quick! We have to get to the Iwatobi motorhome sharp!”

“Iwatobi?!”, Sosuke exclaimed. “What for?”

“I was waiting for news on them”, Rin replied excitedly. “They've just retired.”

“And you're glad for that?”, Sosuke jabbed. Rin paused and frowned. That wasn't what he meant.

“I would have been very happy to hear that Makoto had got the car going again”, he answered gently. “I just thought that in these circumstances, it'd be nice get them out too. And they invited us to joint practice on Tuesday, so... If you don't mind us going out together, of course.” Ai opened the door having overheard a little of the conversation.

“Are Iwatobi joining us then?”, he asked. Sosuke sighed.

“Why would I mind?”, he dismissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah well, that's it for the swimmers this year, as far as the 24 hours go! But their time in Le Mans isn't over just yet.  
> Meanwhile, I'm not sharing it on the blog so as not to spoil everyone, but here's [a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnx_kizjfUw) of Romain Dumas ripping the bodywork off an Audi in 2012. This "Hulk" move was what inspired me Ai's actions...


	15. Headlights in the distance

“It's been over half an hour, I'm afraid it's no use. There's only so much you can do over there... but the whole team is thankful that you tried so hard. See you at the motorhome.”

Rei's words on the radio were heartbreakingly liberating for Makoto. The tension left him. He stayed seated for another minute or so, before getting out, taking his helmet off and signalling to the marshals nearby that it was over. They called out a scooter to take him back to the paddock.

While waiting, Makoto got to see the cars go by on the Mulsanne straight at night. This section of the track was the darkest. The headlights, on full beam, were blinding for anyone looking up towards the first chicane. Their colour was the only clue marshals had to help them decide whether or not they should wave a blue flag. The noise of the upcoming vehicles grew louder, until they wooshed by at 300 km/h. Not long after passing him, the roaring sounds stopped, replaced by brief bursts of revs and pops of exhaust backfire as the drivers braked for the second Hunaudières chicane, clicking down the gears from sixth to second. After ten minutes of contemplation, Makoto's transport arrived.

The trip back to the motorhome took a short quarter of an hour. Through the woods, he and his chauffeur passed some campsites where a few groups of fans were partying, enjoying some beer with a barbecue. Streetlights made an appearance along the edge of the Village, and Makoto got off the scooter at the entrance to the restricted area for competitors. He walked the rest of the way, feeling gloomy as the sound of the surviving cars echoed from the other side of the grandstands. He expected the others to be similarly disappointed, and guessed it wouldn't be long before bedtime. His plans were about to be changed.

“Rin?! Sosuke! And Nitori...”, he gasped. The Samezuka drivers were sitting in the lounge with Haru, Nagisa, Rei and Gou. All had changed into civilian clothes. “What are _all three of you_ doing here?”

“We retired just before you did, Makoto”, Rin replied. “Sosuke figured that it's not too late to go out and have some fun. We'd like you to join us.”

“But where will you go?”

“A concert, if there's still one going”, Sosuke answered.

“Come with us, Mako-chan!”, “you deserve it after all that hard work”, his team encouraged. “It looks like Haru's going with them”, Makoto thought.

“Ok, I'll have a quick shower”, he smiled. “I feel so dirty after touching all those greasy parts!”

“Just don't look into a mirror before you wash, and you'll be fine”, Rin teased.

“Although there is some beauty in looking like you've made an effort, I wouldn't say you're pretty right now either, Makoto!”, Rei commented. Sosuke chuckled, then turned to Rin.

“By the way, you still haven't looked up who's playing tonight, and where”, he observed, subtly covering an order. Rin started to look up the entertainments programme on the event's website, when a shout from upstairs distracted him.

“Aah! You weren't kidding, this is going to take _ages_!” Everyone downstairs laughed.

As there's never any rest for the wicked, Rin still couldn't finish his search: Seijuro called, asking where he and his team-mates were. They agreed to wait for him at the Iwatobi motorhome, and they'd move on from there once Makoto had cleaned up.

By the time the last two were ready, it was quarter past midnight. The concert would be as good as finished by the time they got there, so they needed a plan B.

“What about touring the Village?”, Ai asked.

“No, you'll get pulled over for PR”, Seijuro replied, which made Haru want to veto the plan firmly. “Maybe one of you could go to Mazdaspeed's stand tomorrow, but if you're looking to have fun and not think about the race, you don't want to go to the Village.”

“Is the go-kart track open?”, Nagisa asked, prompting a general, groaning “nah” from the others. “Or the funfair near there”, he suggested more seriously. “It's not far from the last chicane.”

“Sounds good”, Sosuke agreed.

 

The nine youngsters set off towards Maison Blanche. In terms of forgetting there was a race on, in amongst the rides was a good place to be: the loud music drowned the sound of the cars circulating on the track just behind one row of attractions and on the other side of the catch fence. There sure were some fun things to do, but one ride stood out for Nagisa.

“ _That_.” He pointed skyward. At the very moment everyone turned to look, the reverse bungee ball was released. Makoto grabbed an unimpressed Haru's shirt in fear.

“That's... high... and scary, Nagisa...”, he squeaked.

“What's the matter? Don't you want to try it, Makoto?”, Rin teased. Makoto shook his head with terror and certainty in his eyes.

“Actually, I'd be surprised if you did, Rin”, Sosuke jabbed, going for Rin's pride. It worked. Rin dug his heels in and argued back.

“Not only am _I_ doing it, Sosuke, but _you're_ coming with me!”

“Ha! Game on!”, Sosuke reacted, walking forward with a hand behind Rin's back to push him along. “If you don't come off this thing crying, I'll buy you a soda.”

“A soda?! Is that all? You would offer me more if you truly believed the odds were in your favour!” Rin and Sosuke bickered all the way to the ticket booth, neither backing down. These two were good at acting tough, until they were seated and buckled up. Then there was no turning back. The ride operator picked up a microphone and proudly made some announcements to bring some show to the take-off.

“Ok, we have our next pair of daredevils in place, and ready for an acceleration of 5G!”

“That's only 1G more than the lateral forces at Blanchimont!”, Rei yelled, falsely reassuring the two who were about to be shot 60 metres up into the air.

“Thanks, Speedo Glasses”, Rin shouted back.

“Would you like a countdown? Five, four, three...”, the operator asked, showing the count with his hand, underestimating his Japanese customers' level in English. Sosuke nodded. Rin grinned as if to say “chicken”, but in truth, he couldn't hide his anxiety either.

“Alright, perhaps the crowd can join in?”, the announcer continued, picking up the controls. He pressed one button to stretch the elastics, and began: “ten... nine... eight...” Nagisa and Seijuro joined in, Ai was more sheepish, but Makoto and Gou were scared, and clung to one side of Haru each. Makoto couldn't even look.

“Four... three... two...” **doing!** “Whoops.”

“Wha?! How horrible! He didn't even finish the countdown!”, Makoto shouted. Nagisa burst out laughing, while Rei made a deadpan comment, “not beautiful”. It wasn't clear whether he was referring to the surprise release, the erratic movement of the ball, or the sound of Rin and Sosuke's screams. They were screams of exhilarating joy though, and uncontrolled laughter took over when the ball slowed down.

“That was awesome!”, Sosuke shouted. He looked left and saw Rin drying his cheek. “Ha! I knew it. No soda for you!”

“I'm not crying!”, Rin protested. “It's laughter, not emotion, you're being unfair!”

“I literally said I'd get you a soda if you didn't cry”, Sosuke argued back, grinning. “No matter the reason, that's a tear you've just wiped. You lose.”

“Whatever”, Rin conceded. “That was damn great!”

On the ground, Nagisa was trying to convince someone to go up with him.

“I haven't looked up the theories for coping with this.” “Me neither, I'm like Rei-kun.” “I had my thrill for the night spinning into the gravel trap.” “Why are you asking Makoto? He went pale just looking at the ride. And I'm not going up there unless there's a pool.”

“I'll go!”, Seijuro decided. “It'll give me something to tell Sadako later!”

“Nagisa, are you going up?”, Rin said once he had come down the steps. “You'll love it.”

And so the scene was repeated. Rei noticed that Nagisa was strangely silent during the ride though, and the blond boy came off the platform slowly with a disturbed, vacant look on his face. The ride had obviously shaken him more than he had expected. Rei calling him snapped him back to consciousness.

“Nagisa-kun, are you alright? Do you feel sick?” Nagisa coughed and replied gently, “I'm a little dizzy, Rei-chan.” While he spoke, he carefully observed his left hand as he moved it around. Then, in the blink of an eye, he livened up.

“That was intense! What are we doing next?”, he asked cheerfully.

“I'm going back and calling Sadako”, Seijuro answered. 1 AM in Europe translated to 8 AM in Japan, so it was a reasonable time for him to make a phone call to his wife. He waved and wished everyone else a nice end to the evening.

“So yeah, how about something we can all enjoy now?”, Sosuke suggested next. “Makoto, what's grabbed your attention?”

“And not something embarrassing, please, like at this year's Squid Festival”, Rei snapped.

“Don't be like that, Rei-kun”, said Gou. “You finally took part in Squid-Grabbing Heaven! It was marvellous!” Rin reeled his head back in shock. He had not imagined Rei participating in such a contest. Or anyone else he knew, for that matter.

“It was shameful!”, Rei yelled back. “And it was not beautiful, just as I had predicted!”

“I know, I saw the photos”, Haru said, making Rei's face get redder. Thankfully, the confused lighting from the attractions meant it went unnoticed.

“Nownow, Sosuke's right, let's do something we agree on”, Makoto intervened, also keen on not keeping the topic going. “I'd like something rather calm... but still interesting.” He looked around, and quickly saw what he was looking for. A Ferris wheel was situated on the edge of the funfair. There was a queue, but no-one minded waiting. They had all night.

Rin was still baffled by the fact that his friends had taken part in that grotesque squid-grabbing competition. Only two would open up about it, Gou because she had just watched the “muscles and tentacles” combination, and Nagisa, because he was immune to shame, and only saw the fun, comedic side of things. The sound of the cars going by had returned, and an unusual backfire noise created a convenient excuse to put the subject on hold again. Makoto went over to the barrier and saw one of the works Kias in trouble.

“Aw, so close to the pits!”, Ai commiserated. Makoto wasn't sure what to feel. It reminded him of his trouble with the car on the other side of the circuit, but was that really worse than being reminded of his slimy exploits from two months earlier?

As they got closer to the big wheel, they had to decide how to split up, as all eight of them wouldn't fit into one pod. Rin refused to draw lots: he wanted to go with Haru this time. Gou wanted to be with her brother, and Nagisa wanted to be with Ai and Rei who had declined the reverse bungee. So it was four and four: Haru, Makoto, Rin and Gou on one hand; Sosuke, Ai, Nagisa and Rei on the other.

 

It was a fresh night, and a stiff breeze warned of a weather front coming in. It would bring light rain within the hour, and make the remaining racers' lives difficult until around noon. The first time the pods reached the top, Makoto noticed Gou shiver. He got up and untied his jumper from around his waist and offered it to her. After all, he wasn't using it. Haru and Rin looked out southwards and watched pairs of headlights follow each other through the Porsche curves.

“It's a real pity you guys didn't make it”, Rin said. “You were brilliant at night last year, I'm sure you would have reached a great position without the problems.”

“Maybe”, Haru answered. “I just know that... I'd love to be out there driving right now.”

“Did you say... 'love', Haruka?”, Gou said, surprised. Haru nodded. Makoto also noticed the unusual term. It was the second he had used that day. “Fun”. “Love”. Two words that everyone thought only applied to swimming, to water.

“Haru”, Makoto called. “You actually... _really_ like it?”

“It feels good”, Haru replied. “The isolation feels good.” The sight of the race going on had made him sad, and opening up about it wasn't easy for the reserved dark-haired man. But he was with his closest friends. He could do this. He spoke hesitantly, pausing between sentences.

“You can't see the people watching. You can't hear them... There's no sound besides the engine. All you see is what the car sees. Don't resist the car. Guide it to where it's pointing you, where it needs to go.”

“That's beautiful, Haru”, Makoto sighed. “But since when...?”

“Wednesday night, I felt it”, Haru answered. “There was no pressure for times. I looked up on the Mulsanne straight... I saw the stars... Like we saw back then, on the island. Then something flew by, bright. A brake marker. The headlights had lit it up. It was as if the car reminded me to take care. I started to feel at one with the car. Like when I'm at one with the water.”

So there was a comparison with water.

“You've always had a really deep zone, Haru”, Rin commented, hardly surprised. “I got the impression you weren't that deep this afternoon though...”

“I wasn't alone, I had someone to fight”, Haru continued, “and Thursday, I had to push to qualify. I was hoping to recapture it tonight, in the dark.”

“What about you, Makoto?”, Rin asked. “I seem to remember you were afraid of the dark.”

“Haha, I still am, a bit”, said Makoto. “And it's true that it's very dark on the straights over there. But I know I'm not alone. The marshals are there if I need help.”

“Except mechanical help, unfortunately!”, Gou quipped. She made few contributions to the conversation, but it wasn't due to the cold. In fact, she was comfortable, warmed by both the oversized sweater and the incredible bond the other three had. It had lasted for so long, from elementary school to the reunion in high school, and even now, despite being in different universities, different countries and different teams, the friendship of Makoto, Haruka and Rin seemed unbreakable. She was quite content to sit back and witness that.

 

In the following pod, Rei asked Nitori if he had been scared during his accident.

“It's not that scary”, was the answer. “You're in the heat of the moment, and all you can do is curse like mad and brace yourself, waiting for the car to stop. Then your next thought is 'ok, what the swear-word just broke?'”

“Nitori-kun swearing? I hope the team recorded that”, Sosuke joked.

“Mic was closed, I think”, Ai smiled back. He then turned serious. “However, passing someone else's accident... That's very frightening.” Everyone knew what he was referring to, and it was a touching comment, but it made the atmosphere turn somewhat awkward. Rei hadn't foreseen the possibility that the topic of the Donington accident could be raised, and he would have never dared ask Nagisa a similar question about that. Sosuke looked down, away from Nagisa, who made a quick glance to acknowledge Ai's nonetheless kind words. The blond boy then looked out at the track and saw something interesting. With a “whoa!”, he got up and ran over to look, kneeling on the seat between Sosuke and Rei, who complained about the rocking movement of the pod.

“That's the Maserati and the McLaren, so close!”, he said. “It might be a direct fight for position!” He took out his phone to load the live timing page.

“It is! Naruto-chan is trying to get fourth place!”

“Naruto- _chan_?!”, the three others shouted, insisting on the affectionate honorific.

“What? 'Naru-chan' sounds too much like 'Haru-chan', which is already taken”, Nagisa replied, missing the point.

***

**Sunday 13 th September 2015**

The Samezuka boys all had a very decent lie-in. Rin decided to get up when he heard movement in the next room.

“Twenty-five past ten...”, Rin mumbled upon seeing the time on the clock as he slipped into the bath. “It's incredible that we slept so long with all that noise outside.”

Indeed, the race hadn't stopped, and neither had the coverage. In the team's dining room, Rin got some breakfast while watching the broadcast, when Seijuro appeared.

“Lovely morning”, the team boss said, sarcastically. The promised rain had arrived. “Who would have bet on the McLaren being the car to beat, huh?”, he added, referring to the standings.

“Weren't they fastest in warm-up Saturday morning?”, Rin remarked.

“Yesterday morning...”, Seijuro corrected, in between sips of tea. Rin pouted. It felt like three days had gone by since warm-up, not 24 hours.

“So what's the plan for today, chief?”, Rin asked with little enthusiasm. “I believe you promised us some PR last night.”

“Yeah, there's the Mazda hospitality tent in the Village. Nitori's already left for that, and I'll send Sosuke there too when he gets down here, but I may have something else for you.” Seijuro handed over his mobile. A web browser was open on a social media page.

 

**@AERS_Radio – 13/09/2015 10:57**

We have time for one more guest driver before 1PM, any volunteers to visit us? #TLM2015 #BeOurGuest

**reply from @Samazduka – 13/09/2015 10:59**

Fancy hearing from one of our boys @AERS_Radio? #TLM2015 #BeOurGuest

 

“It's basically a long interview. They ask questions whenever they have nothing to talk about on track”, he explained.

“Sure, why not”, Rin answered, lifting his shoulders. He knew why he was being asked: he was more fluent in English than the others.

“Cool”, Seijuro replied. “Shall I put you down for 12?” Rin nodded, then asked how his boss's wife was. Seijuro had called her after getting back to the motorhome, while the others were on the Ferris wheel.

“She's fine”, he answered. “As fine as she can be at the moment, at least. She gets up a lot in the night. I feel bad, being away from her this long. And there's another two weeks... I don't know for how long I can get away with this kind of lifestyle.”

“Girlfriends, wives... They complicate everything”, said Rin, tactlessly.

“But family is also an invaluable source of support”, Seijuro hit back.

Rin's eye twitched. His vision was different. For a long time, he hadn't been close to his family. His father was gone, and, as a former swimmer himself, he would probably have acted more like a coach than a fan. His sister always said she wanted him to do well, yet, all this time, she had been batting for the other side, working with Haru. But he guessed that he had himself to blame too, having moved to Australia not once but twice, creating physical distance with his loved ones. He had grown up differently to Seijuro, and the gap between them was large. While he thought that his captain had started a family too soon, he was unsure when his time would come. Would it be too late once his swimming career was over?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun chapter to write, if not a little tough to balance for length and emotions. I hope it's come out ok.  
> I've found a good video from the Ferris wheel in its current location, and [linked to it on the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/140693828076/its-not-in-the-middle-of-the-night-but-to-be).  
> Up next: RINterview!


	16. RINterview!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like the IwaSame boys, I've made most characters age in this. Starting points are highly debatable, but here's the idea. I had Rin start racing in 2014 aged 19. So in 2015, he's 20 (and Sosuke turns 20 the day after the TLM finish). Likewise, many of the Kanto drivers debuted as children around a decade earlier, so Ash Ketchum, for instance, is into his twenties, and May is 20. Anyway, I'm just trying too hard to make things consistent... as my portrayal of the commentators will show. XD

**TOON LE MANS RACE CLASSIFICATION AFTER 21 HOURS (12:00 noon)**

Started: 45 (30 X1, 15 X2) / Running: 24 (16 X1, 8 X2)

1\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuuga - 312 LAPS

2\. Journal Spirou Peugeot - #23 Peugeot Onyx - Spirou/Fantasio/Zorglub - 311 LAPS

3\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - +2'54"615

...

14\. (1st X2) Team Flintstone - #64 Volvo Concept Coupe - F.Flintstone/W.Flintstone/B.Rubble - 286 LAPS

15\. (2nd X2) Mystery Machines X2 - #88 Volvo Concept Coupe - Scooby-Doo/Scooby-Dum/S.Rogers - +1'04"943

17\. (3rd X2) 60 Ans Alpine Looney Tunes - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 284 LAPS

...

RET. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 122 LAPS

RET. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 112 LAPS

***

Rin strolled through the paddock, behind the pit building. He was wearing a coat on that cloudy day, but didn't bother with the hood despite the drizzle. The rain wasn't heavy. The grey sky still made for miserable conditions to race in, and he was somewhat thankful that he didn't have to drive.

A young Japanese woman, around Rin's age, popped out of one of the garages wearing purple and white overalls. Checking for oncoming vehicles, she spotted the wandering man and went up to him.

“Hey, you're Matsuoka Rin, right?” Rin stopped and confirmed. He scanned the woman's suit and found the name.

“What can I do for you, May-san?”

“Oh, just call me May”, she answered, smiling bashfully. “I've been working in a Western environment for a while now, I'm used to it. By the way, I forgot to add a 'san' for you, I'm sorry.”

“Ah, don't worry”, Rin responded. “I've got used to it in Australia.”

“Cool, you live in Australia?”

“Yeah, my swim club's there. I'm hoping to get to the Olympics one day. I'm only a part-time driver.”

“Aren't we all. I'm a pocket monster trainer two-thirds of the time. It's a modest sport in comparison to swimming, it's specific to where I live. You may only have heard of it because you're here. Anyway, I've been wanting to have a word with you since Brazil.”

Rin suddenly remembered. The purple and white made sense now: she was one of the drivers of Kanto's number 9 entry. He'd had his rear view mirrors full of it for a while, until his mistake and being pushed into the wall.

“I'm sorry I tagged you”, she continued. “I tried to avoid...”

“It was my mistake”, Rin interrupted. “It was a pity it ended like that, I was enjoying the fight.”

“Yeah, me too.” A quaint silence appeared.

“Anyway, I'm due in the radio booth in a few minutes, if you'll excuse me”, said Rin.

“Wait”, said May, holding a hand out awkwardly. “Er, would you be available next July by any chance?” Rin was surprised at how far ahead the question was, but he had an answer.

“Hopefully, I'll be at the Olympics”, he replied.

“Ah. Yeah, I guess that's more than a good excuse!”, May giggled. “I was just thinking, my region holds a rally every July. We have a few invitational slots, I thought maybe you'd want to have a go...”

“Yeah, but the summer is always the middle of the swimming season.”

“Yeah, never mind then”, May abandoned. “I'd better move on. I'm not driving again, but I need some rest before the finish. See you around!”

Rin waved and walked on to the South end of the main building, where most of the media broadcast from. He presented his driver pass and said he was looking for the radio booth.

“Somewhere on the second floor”, the guard said. “It'll be written on the door.”

 

“What next? Do I knock?”, he thought once he had found the right room. He did knock. A technician opened, and asked for a name.

“Matsuoka, Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed”, Rin answered. The man snapped his fingers, realising who he was talking to.

“Guest driver, right?” Rin nodded and the door opened wider. The room was surprisingly dark, the curtains were drawn. Two commentators, one standing and one sitting, were following the live pictures and timing. Off to the right, behind the sound equipment, was a third commentator, who seemed totally surrounded in computer screens. The technician tapped the shoulder of the sitting man, who wasn't talking at the time, and told him the guest driver had arrived. He lifted the microphone on his headset, got up and went to shake Rin's hand.

“Hi, thanks for coming by, I'm Graham, and that's Paul over there.” The noticeably older man with all the computer screens waved. “And...” – “We've met”, Rin said of the standing commentator, who signalled that he had noticed his arrival. He had covered the pre-season test at Tsukuba where he seemed to want to interview everyone. Right now though, he wanted to keep track of his topic, which was cars that had retired.

“Then we lost the two Alfa Romeos, a big shock in X2, both Alfas out, each logging just over 200 laps: the #80, Team Rocket, accident, and the #99, the Animaniacs car, retiring a little later on a technical problem. The team is yet to communicate on the final cause of that retirement. And then there was another shock a couple of hours later, with one of the pre-race favourites, the #16 Chrysler, biting the dust with a mechanical. Arnold's team had turbo issues last year; this year it's the gearbox. Finally, our latest retirement, but not the last in terms of laps covered, is the #6 Cadillac, and bear in mind that the surviving Cadillacs are... well, barely surviving. Both the #36, the second Digimon car in X1, and the Jetson #75, third in class last year, are in the garage. Apart from that class podium, Le Mans has not been kind to GM of late. Pit lane update! Shea's got Boss Graves for T-Rex Sport, I believe. I finished my skit just in time, Shea, how's that?” That was when the lead commentator turned and greeted Rin. “Hi, sorry, just finishing that off. Um... Thanks for coming up! We have a weather update next, then we'll give Graham some closing remarks, and after that, you get to take his place! Simple as that!”

“Simple, huh?”, Rin chuckled nervously. There were a lot of screens, a lot of data. As a driver, he could take it all in, but discuss it live? Seijuro had told him this would be easy!

Once the pit lane report was finished, the anchorman delivered the weather, then, as promised, gave his colleague a send-off.

“Our final guest driver has arrived in the booth”, he announced. “I must say, I've been looking forward to another one of these sequences, they're always very interesting. If you missed, like I did, Alan Tracy's interview this morning, go and listen to it, it's great. But before we get to that, I have one last question for Graham... Go on, do it: name the winner!”

“Oh, it's too early for that!”, the other commentator replied. After some insistence, he gave a name. “I would say McLaren at this stage, but I would have said Peugeot at the same time last year, you see...”

“And you would have been right!”, Paul quipped.

“True, but it wasn't as clear-cut as the situation three hours from the finish suggested! Anyway, for X2, I'm a little more confident and I'm going to say Volvo.”

“Which one?” – “ _A_ Volvo.”

With that, the lead commentator thanked Graham for his efforts, and launched another pit report while Rin donned the third headset. Then, the interview began.

“Meanwhile, back in the booth, I'm very happy to introduce our final guest driver for the 2015 Toon Le Mans: Rin Matsuoka, driver of the #22 Samezuka Mazda Furai. Good afternoon, Rin.”

“Good afternoon, and hi to the fans at the track!”

“Now, I know because we've talked before, but remind us again why your English is so good.” Rin laughed bashfully.

“Haha, I live in Australia eight months out of twelve, or something like that.”

“That definitely helps, and you must be thrilled at the prospect of the AERS visiting Australia next season! First of all, let's get this out of the way: your race is over, unfortunately. What can you tell us about how it went and how it fell apart?”

“Well, the start was... ok. I was very busy fighting in the first stint, then it spread out a bit more, but the pace was still high. And that's how it stayed, fast and furious, I guess you could say... That's a bit _cliché_ , I know. Into the night, there was no slowing down, certainly not from the front group who lapped us. And then, yeah, the accident at 11 PM. The suspension broke at the rear, and it was impossible for Ai Nitori to bring it back to the pits without damaging the chassis, and that's what put us out.”

“So what happened after that? How did you spend the night?”

“ _Ma_... Iwatobi retired shortly afterwards, and even though we had a good fight on track early on, we are friends with them, and we went out together to the fairground, to have some fun basically, and forget the disappointment. We stayed up until it started raining.”

“Too right, the last thing you guys want on top of a DNF is a cold”, Paul joked. His interventions usually meant that he had something to say, so he continued with the note that the leader was due a pitstop. Indeed, the McLaren pitted a minute later, with Naruto Uzumaki handing over to Sakura Haruno.

“Is she going to go to the end, do you think?” the anchorman asked.

“It's possible”, Paul replied. “She was last in the car... three and a half hours ago, roughly, and... yeah, a triple stint to the end is entirely plausible if she feels she has the energy, but the pace is still strong. They only have a one-lap lead, and that's not enough of a life insurance if, say, they pick up a puncture, or something else, heaven forbid, which is why Naruto Uzumaki was still doing the magic 15, you know, 15+ laps an hour.”

“More pit stops coming up, the second-placed car in X2 is due in shortly. We'll have more questions for Rin Matsuoka, our final guest driver, in a moment. Send in yours even, to our social media, at-AERS-underscore-radio, but for now, it's down to pit lane: Joe is with race leader Naruto Uzumaki.”

The lead commentator apologised to Rin; the live action took precedence over the interview for a short time. Rin understood. He was relaxed by now, and not unhappy to sit back and observe how the crew operated. He was impressed at how quickly and fluently the journalists could navigate from one topic to the next, and keep talking. He thought Nagisa was a limitless chatterbox; these guys were in another league, and they had made it their job! Then came the Hourly Update: at half past each hour, Paul gave out the running order, after which the anchorman resumed.

“The stat that impresses me at this stage is not the number of runners, it's not the reliability; I expected more finishers this year, both in numbers and proportion. It's the speed I'm impressed with. It's the fact that we still have 12 laps in hand on the X1 record distance, despite the rain! In one word, last year's race was... slow!”

“I've been barking on about this golden ratio of 15 laps an hour”, Paul remarked, “but it's an important benchmark, and we are really close to it on average this year. Last year, the cars were doing less than 14 at this time, so we could gain another lap or two! I'm predicting between 355 and 357 laps for the winner, compared to 343 in 2014; the leader will equal that with just under an hour to go. It's also more competitive in X2: we're headed for 330 laps at least in that class, I reckon, while last year, Team Rocket won with 323.”

“And they won by three laps! This year, the two Volvos fighting for the lead are on the same lap, and in the same minute! Rin, you mentioned earlier, the pace in the first... what, eight hours was intense. Can you give us an idea as to how intense, compared to 2014?”

“Well, in 2014, we mostly wanted to see how far the car would go”, said Rin. “It was management from the start, we didn't care about position. This time, we had good performance coming to Le Mans, and we wanted to show that. The thing is, once you start battling for position, you can't stop! It's quite addictive, and we didn't think 'conserve' until... We didn't even get round to that! It just didn't stop.”

There was another thing that wasn't stopping, and that was the activity in pit lane. The number 8 Volkswagen and the number 3 Maybach were in a distant duel for third overall, and the former was in to fill up its fuel tank. After that, the commentators discussed whether or not Dexter-Mandark Laboratory Racing could prevail by performing one less stop in the final two and a half hours.

“That would mean stretching the fuel mileage to 65 minutes, but that's not going to happen as long as they need to run 15 laps an hour”, Paul remarked.

“Rin, our stats man does this all the time, and fingers in the nose, as the French say”, the anchorman resumed. “Fuel loads, tyre wear, parts wear,... even driver wear. On those screens, he's got stint lengths, and how long of a rest drivers have potentially had between stints. It comes over as easy, but it isn't, and it must have been daunting for you, coming here last year, discovering all this and working out all these factors.”

“To be honest”, Rin answered, “at Le Mans, it's easier because you basically send the car out for as long as possible on each tank. You double stint by default, because changing tyres at every stop is not an option, and recuperation would be too short if everybody single-stinted. So you just go and see where your rhythm gets you. At the end, if you're in a battle, that's when you start to look at parameters more closely. Or in shorter races, like four hours, where you can have a full race plan and optimise your fuel for the number of laps in each stint.”

“Four-hour races, like the Seca Sprint. What a race that was for you! A podium, _and_ you had to fight for it!”

“It was an incredible race!” – “For the listeners, you can't see Rin, but believe me, and as you'd expect, his eyes have just... lit up upon mention of the podium at Laguna Seca!” – “It was tense all the way through, we fought to keep our position at first, we found ourselves gaining with the incidents ahead, and I drove... I... Ah, I think my best drive ever! Brazil was good, but I made a mistake, but not at Laguna, and I put Nitori in a solid third, which he defended hard. It was an amazing race, to be a part of and to witness the finish from the outside.”

“Particularly satisfying, certainly, because you hadn't had much good fortune until then.”

“It's been an uphill challenge. First, to get the BoP aligned for us. Right now, I think where we are on that is... fair, all things considered. But then, we had to improve our pace as drivers and as a team. We had Momotaro on the team for a time, we tried different combinations... Sure, with Ai and Momo, it worked very well at Laguna, but I think with Ai and Sosuke, here this weekend, we did a very good job too. To keep up in the top half of the field for nearly a third of the race in our second year, it's good. It's not enough, of course! For us, for Mazda, it's not enough, so we have to build on the good base we're setting this year, and keep improving to get big results in 2016.”

“Who are the drivers next year, is Mikoshiba coming back?”

“I can't say. It's a choice that the team is going to make... in due course.”

 

The discussion continued, at times interrupted by the ongoing action. Rin continued to answer, very calmly and professionally. He'd never experienced an interview this long before. Topics included how the Samezuka team came to be, Rin's past and current activities in Australia, and a couple of questions from fans: one about the car, and another asking whether he thought Haru had nudged him a little too hard during their duel early in the race.

“Yeah, I gave him a piece of my mind when we were out on the funfair last night!”, Rin replied cheekily. “No, I'm joking, it wouldn't make a difference to him. He's very tough as a competitor. I know that from our swimming together, he's... He's ruthless! Even if he doesn't look it, he looks shy and all, but he'll do what it takes to beat you. So yeah, it was a hard move, but the battle was fun! There's no fun if there's no hard racing and if the overtaking is too easy.”

“We'll have a few more minutes with Rin Matsuoka, if he doesn't mind, after the top of the hour run-down. But first, a quick trip down to the pits: it's the X2 leader, the number 64 Volvo stopping!”

The short report on the pit stop and a few adverts allowed the main commentator to have a pause. He offered Rin a glass of water.

“I rest my voice for a few days after Le Mans week”, he sighed. “It's just non-stop information, Sunday to Sunday. Team presentations, news conferences, qualifying, the race itself... It's bloody great! Anyway, thanks for coming, it's been great to get to know you, and the fans will appreciate it too.” Rin had time to ask why the curtains were drawn. “Yeah, it's always heartbreaking to come into a booth and pretty much board out the view, but if we don't do it, we have an awful backlight, it makes viewing the screens difficult. When you've got an action reply and you're trying to pick up something subtle – a piece of debris, or a pit infringement –, you need to be able to see it. It's the worst in the evening, with the Sun setting opposite us. At night, we could open up, but then the grandstand lights are on!”

Paul called out, it was time for the hourly routine to restart. The main intro music played, the radio's main sponsor acknowledged, and the announcer spoke again.

“Two hours to go in the 2015 Toon Le Mans, the eighteenth running of the 24-hour classic, and round five of the Animated Endurance Racing Series. Team7 McLaren leads overall by one lap, and the Team Flintstone Volvo leads X2 by half a minute. Back to the race in a moment, there's just one more thing I'd like to talk about with our guest driver, Rin Matsuoka of Samezuka Academy Mazda, then I'll let you go. Rin, we talked about the past, we talked about the present... We haven't mentioned the future much, and in that respect, you're a little peculiar, because you're not a driver first. You're an international-level swimmer, and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro are on the horizon. At the Spa 24 Hours this year, we heard Alex Zanardi, who races both GT cars and handcycles at the moment, an absolute hero; we heard him say that he wasn't going to do Spa next year because of the Paralympics. What about you? Are you going to have to choose?”

“I'm happy to say I won't have to choose between Rio and Le Mans”, Rin answered. “I may skip the American round if I'm qualified for Rio, but no problem for Le Mans.”

“And when will you know if you qualify? How does Olympic qualifying even work?”

“In short, to qualify for the Olympics, you have to set a minimum time and be one of the best two athletes in your speciality at the Japan Open late May. In my case, I swim butterfly, and it's competitive. I made it to the Worlds this year, like I said earlier, but largely because there's this guy who's not 100% at the moment, he's recovering from injury. So he'll be back next year, and for me, for Seijuro Mikoshiba and for him, it's going to be decided at the Nationals early April or at the Japan Open.”

“So April-May time, basically. Does this mean you'll be missing Spa and the Nürburgring?”

“It's not been planned that way, I managed to perform ok this year despite having the two motor races, so maybe I'll do it again. What matters is the system, with training while in the motorsport programme... Like I say, it's worked out this year, at least as far as qualifying for the Worlds was concerned.”

“And are you competing against Haru Nanase in the pool?”

“Haha! He only swims free, so not at the moment!”

“Well, whichever way you look at it, you've got a really ambitious double duty going on, it's honestly impressive. Rin Matsuoka, thank you very much for coming up to the booth, it's been a pleasure talking to you, and everyone here at AERS Radio wishes you the best for your endeavours, in the pool and on the track, starting with Donington in a fortnight's time.”

“Thanks, and thanks to all the fans who are at the track. The atmosphere here is amazing.”

“Cheers, Rin, enjoy the end of the TLM. Jonny's back... 'Here's Jonny!', he says. He will take Rin's place, and while he does, Shea has Barney Rubble, fresh out of the X2-leading number 64 Team Flintstone Volvo.”

A quick round of handshakes, and Rin was out the door. He breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't suspected the level of activity involved in commentary, particularly when it came to collecting data and accurately guessing strategies across the entire 20-plus-car field. To think there were 45 crews to follow at the start! And it was hard enough working out his own tactics!

“Definitely, I'll stick to my day job”, he thought. Whichever day job he was referring to.


	17. Scenes from the first chicane 2015

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did someone ask for an Ace cameo? ;)

“I'm with Phoenix Wright for the new Turnabout Team. Phoenix, you wouldn't have any objection to me saying that you've had a good first 24 Hours, would you?”

“ _No, no objection! It's a nice little event, we've gone at our own pace, and the car's held up, unlike our works counterparts, sadly. We made it through the rain, that was a real test for us, so whatever happens in the remaining time, we've got that satisfaction.”_

“You've still got a large lap deficit to the cars ahead, but you're looking at sixth place, your best ever result, and continuing your run of top ten finishes!”

“ _Yeah, although there are only seven or eight cars left, so if we finish, it'll be top ten... Honestly, we're not looking at the result, we'll be happy to finish.”_

“Thank you, Phoenix. Fingers crossed we see you at the chequered flag.”

 

**Sunday 13 th September 2015**

Their retirement meant that Haru and Makoto had time to do something they had never done together: simply spectate at a motor race. They spent a good couple of hours touring the Village, which was bustling with fans who were visiting the stands of different constructors and sponsors. Many cars were on display, from sporty road cars to former glories of the June 24-hour race. Over at Mazda's tent was the 1991 winner, the 787B, and Ai and Sosuke were signing a few autographs next to it. Haru and Makoto waved from afar, not wanting to interrupt their work – and not wanting to be dragged into any PR work themselves. Less publicity obligations were a perk of being in an independent team, and the two wandered around unhindered, just avoiding the Chrysler hospitality area for good measure.

They moved on to the mound at the Dunlop chicane where Haru had stood at night the year before. It was at the braking zone into the first complex, so it was a good spot to listen to the drivers shifting down the gears, from fifth to second, and watch the brake discs turn red. The leading McLaren went by with a distinctive growl.

“Nagisa will be glad to witness a Team7 win on-site!”, Makoto remarked. Haru nodded slowly in agreement. The grandstands opposite were rather full, with the people there able to watch the action on a big screen. It dawned on Makoto that no-one had recognised him or Haru in the Village.

“We finished second last year. It's strange that no-one would remember us”, he commented.

“Nobody remembers the losers”, Haru replied dryly.

“Losers?!”, Makoto gasped in his mind. It was another one of those words that Makoto wasn't used to hearing from Haru.

“At least that's what Rin says”, the calm, dark-haired man added. Makoto breathed a sigh of relief.

“Maybe they'd remember us if we were wearing the race suits”, he concluded.

“Maybe, but we'd be more conspicuous to begin with”, Haru agreed, as he sat on the ground, continuing to watch and listen. The diversity was remarkable, even with nearly half the cars out. A bright green Volvo. A purple and white Volkswagen, then a blue and white one. Somewhere out on track was the yellow and white one, fighting for third overall. The rumbling of the two surviving Veritas roadsters, the silver number 4 and the pink number 14. A dark blue Chrysler, number 15, the only one left. Front-engined Shelbys, mid-engined Alpines. The quiet Peugeot.

“It's incredible that they're still at it”, said Makoto. “After twenty-two hours, every corner is still perfect. It seems impossible to do...”

“Even though you've been there, you still don't believe it?”, Haru sighed.

“I guess that won't change”, Makoto replied, smiling. “You've helped me improve, but it takes courage to delay your braking that little bit further and floor the throttle that little bit earlier. Courage I'm not sure I have. I'm always worried about spinning.”

“You shouldn't be. You never spin”, Haru observed. “You never make mistakes. You always read the situation well. You're so dependable in the car.”

_Just as you are in life._ Makoto sensed the afterthought and blushed slightly.

“No-one on our team makes many mistakes, but despite that, we haven't had a good performance this season”, he answered, staying on topic. “I know results shouldn't be everything, but I'm not sure I'm having as much fun this year.”

“We've been unlucky”, Haru reassured. “The car, the others... there are many factors that can get in your way in motor racing that don't in swimming.”

_And there are still many things that can slow your swimming down._

Makoto sat down next to Haru, knowing what he had just thought. There was nothing Haru could hide from him, and he took the opportunity to ask a question he hadn't pressed a few evenings earlier.

“You weren't feeling your best in Kazan, were you?”

“I think I got a bit lonely”, Haru replied.

“Even with Rin around?”

“We aren't from the same club, we weren't in the same hotel room. Our programmes were different. We didn't pass each other much.”

“You could have called me”, Makoto suggested.

“You're so kind as it is, coming to watch at the Nationals and all. I admit, it made a difference that you weren't there at the Worlds. But I can't ask you to follow me everywhere. I have to go beyond that.”

“Haru, even when I'm not there, I'm watching”, said Makoto, smiling tenderly as only he knew how. “I wouldn't miss one of your important races for anything in the world. Yours or Rin's, for that matter. I would go out of my way to see you compete. If I had to interrupt a session with the kids to watch, I would. In fact, I'd have them watch with me... Like Rei, I'd love to see others inspired by your swimming.” Haru was touched by what Makoto was saying, even if it wasn't exactly news to him. “Meanwhile, you can count on me to be in the audience at your home tournaments next year, and the years after that. Then there's Tokyo 2020! My dream would be to see you race at the Games, the highest level...”

“That's a long way away, Makoto”, Haru whispered.

“Ah, well... I don't mean to put you under pressure, of course!”, Makoto laughed. Suddenly, he screamed. The shout surprised Haru, who then choked in surprise himself as a pair of hands latched around his stomach and tickled furiously.

“Tickle _no jutsu_ , Mako-chan!” – “Got you, Haruka!”

Nagisa and Rei had sneaked upon the two of them and were now laughing, proud of their stealthy attack.

“Wow, you guys have picked a great spot to see the cars!”, said the former, before running up to the fence and snapping away at the passing vehicles. Haru and Makoto recovered quickly and stood up.

While Nagisa searched for the right spot for his camera lens to peek through a hole in the catch fence and get clear pictures of the cars, the other three talked about where they had been. Makoto mentioned that he and Haru had spotted Ai and Sosuke in the Village. Rei explained that he and Nagisa had explored the opposite side of the pit straight.

“There are a lot of shacks out the back selling souvenirs, paintings and models” he said. “We even found a replica of our car last year! Nagisa-kun's been taking pictures too.”

“That's a good idea, we were a little busy last time, huh?”, said Makoto.

“Good idea, sort of”, Rei nuanced. “He is taking a lot. They're not all very relevant.” Nagisa heard, turned around and walked up, hurriedly swiping the screen of his phone.

“Aw, Rei-chan, surely we don't want to delete this one, do we?”, he said, showing a photo that made Makoto giggle. It was Rei with a mouth full of a sandwich.

“Among others”, the picture's involuntary protagonist grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Oh wait, I've got a really cute one of Haru-chan and Mako-chan just now”, Nagisa continued. “Rei-chan says it's beautiful.” He had captured Haru and Makoto sitting, their heads fitting nicely next to the Dunlop bridge in the background. It was a great picture.

“We need to go home with lots of memories, this might be our last Le Mans!”, claimed Nagisa, heading back to the barriers. The rest were not so chirpy about what their friend had just said.

“I... I hadn't seen it that way”, Makoto muttered.

“He has a point”, Rei remarked as he adjusted his glasses, then his shoulders dipped. “Based on our results, we might not get another contract.”

“The season isn't over, Rei”, Haru replied, with an uplifting tone of determination.

“And there's not just our results we need to consider”, Makoto continued. “There's also our will to go on.” Rei agreed. He thought Makoto was speaking generally, so he was taken aback by what his friend said next.

“I was just saying to Haru that this year hasn't been much fun for me.”

“Makoto-senpai is... losing interest?!”, Rei gasped in his mind.

“The season isn't over, Makoto”, Haru repeated firmly. Rei was about to put his thoughts into words, when the sudden screeching of tyres and a clang from the circuit ended the discussion. The Peugeot had tangled with one of the Shelbys it was trying to lap! Both cars were beached, and the black and gold car was struggling to get moving again.

“Cor!”, Nagisa shouted, sprinting towards the incident to see if he could get a better angle of it.

“Ah, that incorrigible number 21!”, Rei shouted, feeling certain that it was the fault of the car that had pushed Makoto off at the first corner of the Laguna Seca race. The marshals nearest them began waving yellow flags vigorously, while others further up the hill came out from behind the tyre walls to assist the Peugeot. Haru's attention was caught by the French manufacturer's hospitality building. It was in the same place as the year before, overlooking the chicane. The fans there would have had a perfect view of the collision, which was putting the squad's second place in jeopardy.

The Iwatobi boys' first sight from this corner of the circuit was a sunset over the main entrance and the museum. Was their last one going to be the previous year's winning car pedalling laboriously to get out of the gravel trap?


	18. TLM Hour 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And someone else asked for a Crystal Gems cameo...

“AERS Radio, 91.2 FM at the track and around the world on our website, bringing you the final sixty minutes of the 2015 Toon Le Mans, the eighteenth edition. Sixty minutes that could either cement the running order, or serve us up some more drama. We've certainly seen our fair share of twists in the last hour, with the Peugeot and the number 8 Volkswagen both suffering setbacks, and that has reshuffled the podium somewhat. The Team7 McLaren still leads, but with a stronger, two-lap advantage, which they are using to slow down a bit and play safe. Second place is the number 3 DMLR Maybach, and the number 8 Kanto VW is third, having fallen behind the Maybach due a puncture. But the biggest loss of the last hour was for the Spirou Peugeot. While running second, Zorglub made contact with the number 21 Shelby at the Dunlop chicane, and had to drive all the way around the lap with damage to the front end. The pit crew did a swift job though, and got the number 23 out in fourth place, off the podium, but ahead of the number 4 Veritas in fifth. In X2, the win hangs in the balance between the two Volvo Coupes: Team Flintstone leads Mystery Inc. by 48 seconds, but there is one more round of pit stops to go in this final hour, and there is a question mark over tyres. More on that in a moment, but first, let's go down to pit lane with Joe, who's got hold of last year's overall winner, Spirou.”

“Spirou, one must ask: what is it with you guys and 1:30 in the afternoon? That's two years in a row you've dropped position around this time, it must be frustrating!”

“ _Haha, man, that's spooky! I never noticed... But yeah, it's frustrating. We thought that with the puncture for the number 8 we might get third back, but our problem ran deeper and we lost too much time anyway by circulating slowly.”_

“Do you know whose fault the contact was?”

“ _I don't, to be honest. It looked like a racing incident. You know, it was 22 and a half hours into the race, everyone gets a bit tired, so all you need is a short lapse of concentration from either. I'm not blaming anyone, but sure, it's unfortunate for us, we came off worse.”_

“It's ruined an awful lot of hard work, it's a big disappointment, I imagine.”

“ _It is. We had ambitions and hopes for the win during the rain, but the guys at Team7 did an even better job than us, and yeah, now it's obviously over. It's still been a good race, we defended our chances well, we were competitive and the car has been fantastic, but... Traffic, you know, that's the sort of thing that gets in your way in endurance racing!”_

“You say your challenge for victory is over, but who do you think is going to win?”

“ _Right now, McLaren are in a strong position, in a position to control the pace, and that's the best place to be. They deserve to win right now, it's as simple as that! Like I said, they drove amazingly in the night and the wet, and they had less problems. They've done a near-perfect race I think, and only the car can stop them now.”_

“Spirou, reigning TLM champion for another hour, passing the crown on very gracefully. Thank you and thanks to your team for putting on another great challenge here this year.”

 

Rin had a power nap, then went to Mazda's Village stall to join Ai and Sosuke, eating a snack along the way.

“What kept you?”, Sosuke asked when he arrived. “Seijuro told me you'd gone for an interview.”

“It was unusually long”, Rin answered, “and quite tiring. The commentators keep you talking. What's it like here?”

“For the last hour, it's been easy-going”, said Sosuke. “People most often come up to see the car, anyway! They don't know we're here.” The presence of the drivers in the Village had indeed only been announced by social media; nothing on the public address system, for instance. The area was becoming empty of spectators who had gone to grab lunch, before taking their seats to enjoy the finish. A small group of fans arrived and took a few pictures with the three athletes. Seijuro then called to tell his crew they could return to pit lane to watch the end of the race. Before leaving, Rin checked the TV and timing which were available in the tent.

“Only now are they slowing down...”, Rin thought upon seeing the last lap times for the leaders.

 

“And just as Sakura Haruno goes out for her third stint, it's worth noting that last year's distance is now passed, we will have an X1 record distance no matter what, and at this rate I can say with confidence that, excluding any problems, the winning tally will be 356 laps. What's interesting is that, even though we are going to fall short of 15 laps per hour over the whole race, we are going to pass one milestone, which is the 200 km/h average over 24 hours, and that will be done on lap 353.”

“Interesting indeed, Paul. The speed of these Experimentals has shone through in this race. We are on par with LM P2, if not a little quicker because we had rain overnight, and that's what the rulemakers wanted.”

 

The finish of the 2014 TLM had been exceptionally tense because of the duel between Haru and Spirou. 2015 meanwhile was in the norm for the conclusion of a 24-hour race: most surviving cars were in a safe position, and the drivers were running at a conservative pace. The leading pair for example, the McLaren driven by Sakura Haruno and Dexter's Maybach, ran one behind the other, but there was never an attack, they weren't in a battle for position. Teams remained on alert though, worried about last-gasp technical issues, and crew chiefs wouldn't get to relax until their respective cars crossed the finish line.

A more solemn atmosphere took over in the final minutes. On track, bunches began to form as some cars preferred to slip behind the overall leader, thus reducing the risk of a breakdown by avoiding another lap. With his driver unable to close the gap to the X2 champion-elect, Scrappy-Doo went over to talk to Betty Rubble. A handshake between them sealed the fate of their duel: Mystery Inc. accepted that they were beaten, and invited the Flintstone car to slow so that both Volvos could cross the line together. As rivals on the day, they had fought hard, but they had also worked together to develop the racecar, with the factory's support limited to the engine department. A double podium was a result well worth celebrating in style.

With just under three minutes to go, the number 7 McLaren completed its 355th lap. Sakura now had six minutes to complete the 356th, or else her team would be declassified. That still left enough time for her to savour the moment of triumph. During the final circulation, the marshals came out from between the tyre walls and waved their flags, of all sorts of colours, to salute the competitors. There was never a cooling-down lap at Le Mans because the circuit was too long, and the cars went straight to parc fermé after crossing the line, so usually the final tour acted as a parade lap. This hadn't been done in 2014 of course, because the fight for victory went on to the very end.

The stress among the pit crews turned to anxious anticipation. All eyes were on the run-up to the final chicane, where the twenty-one cars still running would soon appear. The race director walked onto the track below the clock, which was stuck on “00:00:00”, with the chequered flag of deliverance in his hands.

 

“This race has been epic. Maserati had pole, and led at the start. Then Volkswagen led, Chrysler led, Maybach and Peugeot led. But none of the favourites could resist the masterful wet-weather driving we saw from the number 7 crew. They held on to the lead lap for half the race, attacked when their opponents were at their most vulnerable, and never looked back. Consistency, reliability, and in a few moments, victory. This is an utterly deserved outcome for Sakura Haruno and her team-mates after the race they've had. Into the Ford chicane at parade pace, first and second will be in the same shot, but two laps apart. In 1995, the McLaren F1 triumphed here, and 20 years later, Team7 and the McLaren X-1 **WIN THE TOON LE MANS** **!** 'Rasengan' is the winning _jutsu_ , and two years after topping the GTE class, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga-Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno take a first outright victory, and where better to do it than Le Mans? What a performance! Joe is in pit lane, where it's celebration time!”

“It's elation down here at the McLaren pit as you'd expect! Mr. and Mrs. Uzumaki are standing on pit wall, all sorts of flags flying: Konoha, McLaren, Britain, Japan! Splendid result for this team, of course! Give me a moment, I'll try to grab someone to talk to.”

“Alright Joe, that gives us time to see our X2 champions over the line. As convened, the Volvos are also approaching the finish line in formation. Mystery Inc. conceded the victory, but agreed to do the photogenic thing for the Swedish manufacturer. They sit in their place, while another married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Flintstone, Wilma at the wheel of the number 64, along with Barney Rubble, take victory in X2! A Volvo 1-2, 64 leads 88, with the number 60 Alpine in third. Back to X1, the Peugeot that won here last year takes fourth, the number 8 VW has crossed the line in third, the number 3 Maybach is second, and the number 7 Team7 McLaren is the overall winner. We now have our podiums at the 2015 TLM, and Joe has Naruto Uzumaki's reaction.”

“Naruto Uzumaki, you've done it, you are the overall Hokage of Le Mans!”

“ _Haha! Amazing, 'ttebayo! We've had a class win here before, GTE, and I can tell you, this was every bit as hard. X1 is a totally competitive class. To get two podiums this year was already more than we expected, but to come out on top at Le Mans is... There are no words for that. I want to thank the team, Kakashi, Ino, Kurenai, the engineers and mechanics who put up a great strategy and showed super reactions through the complicated moments. Thank you to McLaren Special Operations who gave us a fantastic car to work with, and to my team-mates, Sakura and Hinata, who drove their absolute best. The result is a great reward for a whole team who believed it all the way!”_

“We won't hold you up, Naruto-san, Victory Lane awaits. Congratulations again!”

 

The members of the Iwatobi team stood just outside their closed garage. They saw the winning car drive up pit lane to the victory enclosure. Makoto, Haru, Rei and Gou applauded calmly, while Nagisa tried to get closer and take a picture of Naruto and Hinata riding on the roof of the orange and black McLaren that Sakura was driving. He then posted it on social media with a caption full of smilies. The road was busy, noisy, and about to get busier when fans would be allowed to invade the track and form a crowd beneath the podium.

Nearby, another team was congratulating itself and eagerly waiting for the return of the driver who had taken the last leg. Crystal Gems was a new squad, like Iwatobi had been the year before, only they couldn't keep up with the pace of the more confident teams who had two years of experience with these cars. They had started at the very back of the X1 field, run an anonymous race with a few issues, and finished 27 laps down, yet Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst were dancing around as if they had won. They didn't care about the result, and never had cared. They had just done their best as a team and made it to the end. Finishing a 24-hour race was no small achievement, it was a victory in its own right. Le Mans made all those who had completed the race feel that way: satisfied, triumphant, ready to go again. Meanwhile, those who had retired were left with an emptiness.

Makoto looked on, touched by the sight of this squad celebrating the fact that they had reached the only goal they had set themselves. It seemed to be the essence of what he had built the Iwatobi Racing Team for, and he felt a bit jealous knowing that his team had missed out on that. The scene reignited a spark of desire in him. Not a desire to take part in a full season, fighting for position at every race. That was too difficult, and too frustrating when incidents repeatedly hampered his car's progress. Had he even ever been interested in that? No, his desire was to return to the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2016. Not to chase a podium or a top ten, not to beat Samezuka. Just to settle a score with the race itself.

 

**@IwatobiRC – 13/09/2015 15:11**

[picture of the podium]

Not so fortunate this year, we're not up there! :( but congrats to the winners #Team7 #Naruto! \\(^^)/ #TLM Nagisa ;)

 

***

 

**TOON LE MANS RACE - FINAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER 24 HOURS**

Started: 45 (30 X1, 15 X2) / Running and Classified: 21 (14 X1, 7 X2)

1\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuuga - 356 LAPS (4851.924 km @ 201.87 km/h)

2\. DMLR - #3 Maybach Exelero - Dexter/Mandark/Dee Dee - 354 LAPS

3\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - +0'44"793

...

13\. (1st X2) Team Flintstone - #64 Volvo Concept Coupe - F.Flintstone/W.Flintstone/B.Rubble - 331 LAPS

14\. (2nd X2) Mystery Machines X2 - #88 Volvo Concept Coupe - Scooby-Doo/Scooby-Dum/S.Rogers - +0'34"814

16\. (3rd X2) 60 Ans Alpine Looney Tunes - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - 326 LAPS

...

RET. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 122 LAPS

RET. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 112 LAPS

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like Iwatobi and Samezuka, Team7 give nicknames to their chassis. As indicated in the commentary, their winning car is called 'Rasengan'.  
> Iwatobi have two chassis in 2015. At Tsukuba and Laguna Seca, the team used chassis number 7, which Nagisa got to nickname – he chose 'Rockhopper', which is just 'Iwatobi' in another language, but Nagisa likes the term; the car “hops” from one corner to the next... It spends a lot of time in showrooms in Japan, while the team runs another chassis in Europe: number 2, which had replaced the one dubbed 'Speedbird' by Makoto in 2014. It was also the one that Iwatobi had tested first, before their race debut, and back then, it was all white, so Rei chose the name 'Beluga'. Iwatobi share a spare with the works team.  
> Meanwhile, Samezuka are using the same system as in 2014, rotating between 'Free' and 'Butter' for the races, depending on the speed of the circuit. 'Back' is the test car, and 'Breast' the demo car. 'Free' will be repaired in time for Suzuka should they want to use it, but they will run 'Butter' on the high-downforce Donington track in the next chapters...
> 
> So that's all from Le Mans 2015! I've posted on my blog one of my working documents: [the pit stop sequence](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/141670410926/spoilers-if-you-havent-read-faster-11-through-18). It's rather important to make this reasonable when I want to get person A in the car at a set time t against a person B for example. I don't do these for _all 45 cars_ of course...


	19. Round 6 - Great Britain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The onboard for Donington is on my blog, [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/142007856436/and-the-final-post-for-today-will-be-the-onboard).

**Friday 25 th September 2015**

Nagisa would normally have been brimming with excitement on the morning of first free practice, but instead, on that day at Donington, he looked serious and said next to nothing before getting in the car. The others understood that he might be apprehensive when taking the wheel once again at the scene of his nasty accident a year earlier, but Rei was sensing something else. Some form of gloom that had been building up over the previous couple of weeks. Since Le Mans, Nagisa had wanted to visit places, and he took lots of pictures every time.

“We might not have another opportunity!”, “let's make the most of being here!”, he'd say. Nagisa was always one to live his life in the present, but his joy seemed to be taking nostalgic undertones. He might truly believe that he wouldn't come back to Europe in the near future.

Rei watched on anxiously as the car, with Nagisa inside, was pulled out onto pit road on the dolly jacks. A mechanic then activated the car's integrated pneumatic jacks to allow the wheeled ones to be removed, then dropped the car altogether. That was when Nagisa was expected to start the engine and move. But the car remained still and quiet. After a couple of seconds, an engineer near the machine made a hand signal to tell the driver to get going.

“Is there a problem, Nagisa-kun?”, Rei asked on the radio.

No answer.

“Nagisa-kun, won't the car fire?”

Silence.

“At this rate, there might be something wrong with the radio too”, Rei thought. He looked left to check for traffic, cars heading out for the practice session, and crossed. He ran around the back of the car and tapped on the window.

“Nagisa-kun?”

Nagisa wasn't expecting the door to open. When it did, he immediately turned his head. Rei gasped. The problem wasn't with the car, it was with the driver. Nagisa was panting, his brow was damp with a cold sweat and his wide, wet eyes were those of a hostage pleading to be released.

“I can't go”, Nagisa managed to squeak painfully. “Get me out, Rei-chan, please!”

Rei reacted quickly by asking the car to be wheeled back inside. No-one else had seen what he just had, so Jeremy assumed it was a mechanical problem, although the tone in Rei's voice alerted Makoto. It was when Rei asked for the garage door to be pulled down that the unusually grave nature of what was going on became clear.

“Door down?!”, a surprised Jeremy asked.

“Yes, the driver's unwell, I don't want anyone to see this. Makoto! Fetch some water, please!”

“What's going on?”, Haru reacted to the commotion.

“Nagisa-kun appears to be having some sort of panic attack”, Rei answered. “Help me get him out of the car!”

“You need to get him to the medical centre”, an official told him, but he wasn't listening. The most urgent thing to do was to get Nagisa out and calm him down. Haru and Rei carried him away from the car, and Makoto arrived with the bottle from the car and some extra water.

With his back laid up against the rear wall of the garage, it looked like Nagisa was relaxing. He closed his eyes and took back control of his breathing. The other three were crouched around him. Rei wanted to remove his helmet. Makoto wasn't sure that it was a good idea.

“It'll be easier for him to drink”, Rei insisted, as his hands lunged forward to unbuckle the straps. “Don't move, Nagisa-kun...” No-one stopped him, and he then brought a bottle to Nagisa's lips, while Makoto dabbed his team-mate's forehead with a wet towel. The shock was passing. Aware that he was out of the vehicle, Nagisa returned to his senses.

“Whoa, I'm sorry, guys...”, he mumbled. Just then, Gou intervened to relay concern from Jeremy that practice time was ticking away. Haru heard, and got up to talk with them, but Rei, the tactician, wasn't listening. He had to understand what had happened to Nagisa, and wanted to press on with some questions, even though Makoto was telling him to take it easy.

Another half a minute of confusion later, Haru crouched down with the others again, but not to tend to Nagisa.

“Rei, get your race suit and helmet”, he ordered calmly.

“What?”, Rei replied in disbelief. “While Nagisa-kun isn't well?”

“If he's not fit to drive again this weekend, you have to fill in, remember? You've never driven here before, you need the practice”, Haru explained.

“But what about Nagisa-kun?”, Rei insisted.

“Makoto and I will look after him.”

“Sure thing. If the team's resuming practice, we'll take him somewhere calm”, Makoto added. “Can you get up, Nagisa?”

Rei could only vacantly watch as Makoto helped his younger friend to his feet. Nagisa could walk alright, but he was sporting a miserable expression. “I'm sorry”, he repeated.

“Rei-kun, the guys are waiting”, Gou stated, with a firm yet understanding voice.

Rei's kit was in the motorhome, which was where the other three were heading. He wanted to walk back with Nagisa, but instead he had to hurry and overtake them. It took a total of ten minutes for him to change and get back to the garage, where the official was repeating to Gou that the team shouldn't hesitate to send Nagisa to the circuit's infirmary. As he was the only driver in the car's bay, Rei couldn't get any hints or advice on how to tame the Donington track. He'd have to rely on theory. He tried to memorise the course by looking at a map, but once he got going, he drove on instinct, using the distance boards to brake, carrying conservative corner speeds, being overtaken left, right and centre.

How many laps did he cover? How long was his stint? He didn't know. The effort failed to take his mind off of his worry. Gou might have told him, he wasn't sure. The only message Rei wanted to hear was “box”. When it finally came, he was relieved. He rushed back to the pits (had he finished the lap, his final third sector could have been a personal best), only just remembered to use the speed limiter, and got out to let Haru take over. The dark-haired driver was more accustomed to concentrating in heavy circumstances, and sat, expecting the exchange to go routinely.

“Where is Nagisa-kun?”, he heard. The non-standard communication surprised him.

“Repeat that, please?”, he said back, raising his voice to talk over the noise of cars going by. Then he felt a stronger than usual tug on his right shoulder. That made him tilt his head to the left, effectively snapping his visual focus. “Gentler with the belts, Rei”, he shouted.

“Where is Nagisa-kun?”, Rei shouted slowly and articulately. The pair's loud voices were muffled by the balaclava and the shield in front of their mouths, but Haru could see Rei's piercing, demanding eyes. “Where is he?”, Rei repeated, before yanking the left strap of Haru's safety harness with considerable force.

“OUCH! He's in the motorhome!”, Haru yelled. He returned an angry glance. “When I left, he was in the lounge with Makoto.”

“Thanks”, Rei concluded. He shut the door and walked straight through the garage, telling Jeremy he'd go over the data later. Haru, meanwhile, was on his way.

Rei effectively found Makoto and Nagisa on the sofa in the motorhome. The blond boy was looking physically better, but still unhappy. Rei's tact hadn't returned, and he ordered an explanation. Makoto, of course, told him to calm down.

“I'm worried, Makoto”, Rei replied firmly. “I don't care if it takes all day, I need to know what's happened to you, Nagisa-kun. Have you fallen ill? Is that why you got up last night?” Makoto insisted that Rei exercise more care. Then Nagisa spoke.

“It's ok, Mako-chan”, he said quietly. “Rei-chan is right. I should tell you. I owe it to you.”

 

Meanwhile, there was confusion on pit wall. Reporters had visited the cabin to ask why Rei had driven. Gou had managed to send them away with the short comment “reserve driver training”. Iwatobi were not the only ones running a fourth driver, since Momo had returned for a practice stint for Samezuka. But the engineers had a bigger problem: they couldn't contact the car. Haru was driving around unperturbed though, if indeed it was him. The timing screens were still showing Rei as the driver. The steward in charge of supervising the Iwatobi Racing Team had seen the exchange, so something was wrong. He wanted to check the transponder as soon as possible. The device in question determined who was in the car and when, thus recording the driving time for each driver. Minimum driving times were a condition for classification in the race, so it was important to make sure that the hardware wasn't faulty and that the teams were using it correctly. After barely ten minutes on track, Haru was shown the “box” message on the pit board.

 

In the motorhome, Nagisa had come clean about feeling lower than normal. The reverse bungee in France had shaken him more than he'd admitted at the time. Being tossed around had thrown vague memories of the accident back at him, and he'd had a bad dream that night.

“I panicked when I got in the car”, he explained. “I was certain I was going to have another crash.”

“You think your dreams are premonitions?”, Rei said sceptically.

“It's happened before”, Nagisa replied. “I once had a nightmare before an exam. I arrived late, and I had to answer a question in front of everyone to be allowed to take it. I didn't understand the question... Not a word of it! I could hear people laughing. And the next day... Of course I was on time, but my mind went blank when I saw the exam paper. I jammed. I failed.”

“When was this, Nagisa?”, Makoto asked, hoping it was the previous year.

“July”, was the short, shameful answer.

“ _This_ July?!”, Rei gasped. Nagisa nodded.

“It's not working out”, he admitted. “This year's turning out worse than the last. I won't be able to race again.”

“Your parents?”, Makoto asked, remembering a previous problem with grades.

“No, they're not forcing my hand this time”, Nagisa replied. “But I have to do what's right! If I must stop travelling, stop racing...” There it was again, the unbearable thought that he may have already driven his last race. “Ah, I don't know what to do! Term is going to start again, and my blockages will...”

“REI!”, a shout came from the door, violently interrupting Nagisa's distressed confession. It was Haru, and no-one had seen him this furious since his outburst at the Regionals a couple of years earlier.

“What the fuck was that back there?” Makoto's eyes widened with fear. He didn't know what had put Haru in that mood, but he knew that things were going to get very difficult, for though Haru could be disturbingly blunt, he never cursed. Rei stood to face him.

“If you couldn't use them to torture me into telling you where Nagisa was, you would have forgotten the belts too, I bet!”, Haru continued loudly.

“Torture?!”, Rei argued back. “That's harsh. You didn't answer my question the first...”

“And you were so preoccupied with that question that you forgot virtually everything!”, Haru butted in. “The team's been fined for improper transponder setting. You of all people can't forget these things!”

“There's something else going on here...”

“Stop trying to change the subject! Why couldn't you do your job properly?!”

“Will you let me finish a sentence, Haruka?”

By now, the two were shouting over each other. Makoto made weak attempts to calm them down, but to no avail. Inside he was praying that neither would raise a hand... Then he turned and saw pain written all over Nagisa's face. It gave Makoto a boost of adrenalin to step in.

“SHUT UP!”, he yelled at the top of his lungs, extending both arms in between his two friends and pushing them back. It worked, it silenced them. “Both of you, shut up! You're upsetting Nagisa, now either shut up or fight outside!” The thought that the fight could go on was too much for Nagisa though, so he got up, ran past everyone and up to his room.

“Nagisa-kun!”, Rei called as he followed. Gou arrived at that moment. She didn't need to know more than what she saw: Haru being held back at arm's length by Makoto, who was telling him to not go after Rei, who in turn was running up the stairs, and no Nagisa in sight. “Who's next in the car?”, Jeremy had asked, sending her to fetch a driver. The answer was “no-one”.

Haru retreated to sit in an armchair, leaving Makoto to catch a glimpse of Gou's shocked look before she walked off to tell the crew chief that, evidently, practice was cancelled. Makoto could have followed her and volunteered to drive, but leaving Haru and Rei in the same building with no supervision was a bad idea. He sprinted to his room to grab his phone and ran back down to the lounge again. A sulking Haru hadn't moved. Makoto hurriedly texted Gou.

“Please apologise to the team for me, then come back. We have to try to get the team back together for FP2. I don't think I can do it alone.”


	20. Split Time of Dissatisfaction!

Upstairs, Nagisa was hidden under his sheets. Rei sat on his own bed, not daring break the ominous silence. Both had been terrified by Haru's wrath. It was different from bad moods he had displayed in the past, which were based in part on frustration with himself. There had been severe reproach and blame in his voice this time. Haru wanted Rei to pay for what he viewed as a bad individual slip-up. In a sense, Nagisa leaving the lounge had been a lifesaver for Rei. By following, he felt that he had narrowly escaped physical confrontation.

“Now I've done it. I broke the team”, Nagisa eventually blubbered.

“Haruka has a problem with me, not you, Nagisa-kun”, Rei replied weakly. “It's not your fault.”

“It is”, Nagisa groaned, popping his sad head out from under his pillow. “If I had just manned up and gone out, this wouldn't have happened. Studies, driving, and now my friends – I suck at everything.”

“You haven't lost any friends, Nagisa-kun”, Rei reassured, kneeling on the floor to get closer to his room-mate.

“But you and Haru-chan...”

“That's not your problem”, he interrupted, closing the door on the subject. Obviously the resentment was still warm. However, he redirected his energy at encouraging Nagisa. “The point is, you still have friends, and your driving can't have become bad overnight. Look past what you see as a bad omen, and trust yourself! Same goes for your studies. Remember how I said that I thought you weren't one to give up? I still believe that.” The words were having little effect on Nagisa.

“You don't know how bad it's got, Rei-chan”, he groaned as he sat up, wrapped in his quilt. “Vet school was always going to be a long shot. I gave it a second chance, but I definitely don't like it. It's too much theory.”

“That's fine, move on to something else!”, Rei resumed, boisterously. It had always been his style to put a solution forward as quickly and directly as possible. “You've always had loads of ideas of things you'd want to do. Get counseling to change major! The sooner you prepare for it, the better!” Nagisa looked torn. He admitted it.

“M... maybe I should go to the end of the year though.”

“That's not logical, Nagisa-kun”, Rei stated. “You just said that it doesn't suit you.” He looked insistently at Nagisa, who shrank back down into the bed sheets. Nagisa sensed that Rei wasn't letting up, that he had to know why.

“But if I give up, she won't like me”, he mumbled.

Rei's eyes widened with surprise and his mind became a muddle.

“She?! Nagisa-kun... Why...?”, he gasped.

_Is this what I think it is?_

“She wouldn't want to date a quitter”, Nagisa replied sheepishly.

_That's not what I meant._

“If at least I salvage the winter term...”

_I meant why would you put yourself through something you don't enjoy..._

“... she might think I'm brainy enough for her.”

_...for a girl?_

“By continuing vet school, I have a chance.”

_No wonder you're being incoherent._

“Please don't tell anyone about this, Rei-chan”, Nagisa concluded, his face shamefully buried in his pillow. This was the first time he had talked about it.

Gobsmacked by the revelation, Rei didn't know what to say either. Love was not something he understood, and he understood it even less after that conversation.

_Get out of the dead-end, Nagisa-kun._

A knock at the door burst the bubble surrounding the pair.

“Wh... Who is it?”, Rei stuttered, clambering to his feet.

“Gou”, answered a feminine voice. Rei looked back at Nagisa. He was laying on his stomach, not moving. He hadn't made any objection, so Rei invited Gou in.

“Is Nagisa-kun better?”, she asked before closing the door.

“He's talked to me, that's a start”, Rei replied as he nudged his room-mate to tell him to sit up. “Do you want some time with him?”

“A little later, Rei-kun. Right now, it's you I need to talk to”, said Gou, settling next to Nagisa. She gave the blond boy a quick, comforting rub on the back, and invited Rei to sit opposite her. Her voice was calm, and by putting herself in a relaxed posture she showed that she didn't intend to confront her race engineer violently. “I understand that you're worried for Nagisa-kun. We all are. But I want to remind you objectively what went on in the car earlier. Only the facts, I'm taking no sides. The current driver wasn't updated after the pit stop because Haruka's transponder wasn't plugged in. This was judged a violation by the stewards, and the team has to pay a £50 fine. Had it been in the race, we would have had a hefty stop-and-hold because transponders are needed to calculate driving times... as you know. Anyway, no matter the reasons, it's the responsibility of both exchanging drivers to ensure that the procedures are followed: the exiting driver puts everything in place for the entering driver, who in turn mustn't leave the pits if something is missing. I've explained this to Haruka, and now I'm telling you.”

Rei registered the situation with no difficulty, and couldn't argue with it. He stood, bowed and apologised to Gou. He bowed again promising to do the same for the pit crew at the next possibility. Gou smiled tenderly.

“Thank you, Rei-kun”, she sighed as she got up. “Haruka-san has also apologised, so that incident is resolved. Now, an emergency team meeting is in order to settle other matters. If you don't mind coming downstairs to discuss...”

 

Makoto smiled nervously as he watched the others enter the lounge. Haru only looked up once Rei had sat opposite him. Both sported blank, distant expressions. Gou was also anxious. She knew that securing Haru and Rei's apologies for the botched pit stop was the easy part. What damage the fight in the motorhome had done was less clear. This kind of tension was unheard of between the boys, and they normally looked after each other well enough on their own. For the first time since the motor racing team was formed, Gou had to step in and solve a temper problem. It was something she had been prepared for though, as sports psychology was in her curriculum.

“As the manager of this team, I think it's better if everything is on the table”, she said. “Rei-kun and Haruka-san, you may say what you need to to each other. Just do it _calmly_.”

“Rei”, Haru spoke immediately. Although he was less angry, he set a blunt tone for the discussion. “What I saw earlier wasn't the Rei I know. You acted irrationally. I don't get how you could be distracted to that point.”

“Well, I don't get how you be so cold to what was happening to Nagisa-kun”, Rei replied, no less frank.

“What do you think I am, some sort of insensitive bastard?”, Haru snapped back. Makoto urgently intervened.

“Haru, talk nicer.” He nearly added “you're starting to sound like Rin”, but judiciously refrained from doing so.

“Of course I'm worried”, Haru sighed in response. “But once he was out of the car and resting, what more was there to do?”

“Talk to him?! Find out what's wrong?!”, Rei interrupted. Gou made a hand gesture to tell Rei to speak quietly. She was capable of raising her voice when necessary, but she knew this was a time when it was necessary not to.

“The crew wanted to keep the team going, Jeremy was asking for a driver”, Haru explained. “There was nothing wrong with the car, so we were wasting practice time. Time that's valuable for a reserve driver who's never driven here before.”

“So you've decided to become a manager, huh? You're exceeding your role. It isn't your job to assign the car!”

“Jeremy and Gou agreed, and so did you, because you drove anyway.”

“No, that's because I've given up discussing anything with you”, Rei huffed. “This discussion is probably pointless too.” Gou took offence.

“It isn't if it allows you to get your feelings out in the open, Rei-kun”, she said. Rei's frustration reached boiling point.

“Oh, you want my feelings, huh?”, he started to yell. “Talking to Haruka is like talking to a wall sometimes! He's an uncompromising, whimsical, selfish...”

“Whoa, Rei, enough!”, Makoto warned. Haru was sitting straight up, shocked at what he had heard, while Nagisa started to feel uncomfortable next to Rei.

“ _I_ 've had enough, Makoto!”, the blue-haired man fired. “I'm fed up! He never listens!”

“You're wrong”, Haru shot back, with less power than before. Rei went into full rant mode, gesticulating wildly as he launched an impressive tirade.

“ _You're_ wrong, Haruka, you do never listen. In the car, you're always doing your own thing, you ignore me, you ignore the engineers, you ignore our queries and you never give feedback. But when _you_ want something, damn! You expect everyone to listen to _you_! When you don't want to start a race, there's nothing we can do about it. Until one day, as if by magic, you decide you _do_ want to start, in which case, we can't say no! We're always waiting on a possible whim from you to decide strategy! We're always stuck on what _you_ will or will not do!”

Rei had got a lot off his chest. He put his face in his hands and pouted, exhausted by the emotion, and knowing he had caused considerable shock. Haru knew that he had been at odds with Rei on strategy at times, but hadn't imagined that it had irritated Rei to this point. He was stunned. Everyone was, stunned and saddened. Gou thought hard about what to say, as did Makoto who desperately wanted to reconcile the two. Nagisa felt awfully guilty, he was still convinced that all this mess was of his doing.

A cough from the door broke the awkward silence.

“Don't mean to interrupt. There seems to be a big problem here”, Jeremy understated quietly. He hadn't understood the terms of the argument in Japanese, but what he did know was that his drivers had tripped up, his tactician was having a spectacular meltdown and his manager had run out of answers. The team was direction-less, in disarray, on the verge of collapsing.

“I think it's time to decide what we're doing this weekend”, said Gou, in English, inviting her crew chief into the discussion. It was only fair that he know first-hand what was going to happen next. “Is there a chance that we can compete?”

“I admit I'm not so sure now”, Rei mumbled, sniffling and wiping his eyes.

“It looks like we could all use some time off”, Makoto suggested. “There's time to sort ourselves out before Suzuka. On the other hand, we're here now, I don't know how we can justify skipping this race.”

“I don't think you can”, said Jeremy. “You have three physically fit drivers and the car's in one piece. Even if there was an accident at this stage, we have a spare. You don't have a case for withdrawal on the basis of _force majeure_.”

“But we could withdraw anyway, right?”, Gou asked.

“Without _force majeure_ , you have no insurance, so to speak. You wouldn't get any money back from the organisers for the two days you're not using for instance. But that's only half the problem. There's the contract with the manufacturer you need to consider too, and on that front...” Jeremy seemed to think twice before continuing.

“You're right, maybe we should check the contracts”, said Gou, opening her laptop on the table to find the relevant paragraphs in the team's contracts.

“Yeah, by any means, check the contracts before making a decision, but I'm thinking of something else”, Jeremy reacted. “Something that isn't in the contract. How should I put this?”

“You can just tell us”, said Makoto. It wasn't clear what the engineer was referring to, so Makoto had no idea how bad the news could be.

“It's supposed to be confidential”, Jeremy replied. “But I guess this information would be helpful... The directors of Chrysler Racing are changing their approach to the AERS because of the championship format arriving next year.”

“I get it”, Rei sighed. “We're not good enough, so we're not going to be renewed.”

“No, I mean, they're not closing the door on privateers, but they do want to focus more resources on the works team.”

“I've found it”, Gou interrupted, then she read: “forfeit under AERS Sporting Regulations article 12 will not affect the present agreement”, etc etc... “withdrawal under other circumstances could lead to re-examination of the support and supply agreement by the Manufacturer.”

“Planning for next season, it would make sense for them to send their second car to Suzuka instead of us”, a glaringly pessimistic Rei noted.

“What is article 12?”, Makoto asked.

“It defines _force majeure_ ”, Jeremy replied, without hesitation. “The appreciation of the emergency is in the hands of the Race Director, but, like I said, we don't have a case for that.”

“And you were right about the fees, Jeremy”, said Gou, as she read through the contract the team had signed with the Series. Scrolling back up to the top of the document, something caught her attention. She paused on it and stated the situation simply: “and we have to do five races”. Makoto didn't understand.

“So? We've done four. If we skip this one and do Suzuka, we do five”, he worked out. Haru was lost. He was under the impression that several discussions were being held at once.

“But we just said that Chrysler might drop us for Suzuka if we miss this race”, said Rei. “And no other manufacturer would take on a bunch of quitters. Oh...” He looked at Nagisa. What he was saying reminded him of the terms his friend had used earlier. He dipped his head and whispered an apology. Nagisa didn't react. He wasn't paying attention to anything, he was just as confused as Haru, with his own worries haunting him on top.

“More importantly, we'll be in financial trouble”, Gou resumed. “The pre-season test is free as long as we take at least five starts, but if we fail to, except if we withdraw in the conditions of article 12, it's extra.”

“And if we lose our manufacturer for forfeiting a race, we'd lose sponsors too”, Makoto reasoned. “We'd have to pay out of our pockets or something...”

“And you bet we can't afford that”, Gou warned.

“So we're tied up. It's clearly not in our interest to skip this race”, Makoto concluded.

“As manager of the team, I would state that opinion more firmly: we mustn't withdraw”, Gou said. “That leaves us with one more thing to settle: we need three drivers. Now.”

Makoto raised his hand. Haru hadn't followed the reasoning, but he did know that a clear, simple choice had been put in front of him.

“I'm in”, he said. “I never was out.”

Rei was convinced that he had no choice: he had to drive if Nagisa couldn't. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to act as race engineer either. How could he work with Haru after what he had said?

“Maybe I can”, Nagisa shyly suggested. “I'm putting up my own barriers, after all.”

“Nagisa-kun, I would like to talk with you privately next”, said Gou, “and if you do drive, we'll have you checked up at the infirmary to reassure Race Control. Meanwhile, I need Rei-kun's decision.”

 

During second practice, Haru and Rei did all the running, with exchanges done inside the garage, while Makoto and Gou talked to Nagisa, before he went for an examination. At the end of the session, Rei got out of the car and heard Gou make a declaration to a pit reporter.

“Hazuki's been under the weather today, so we've run Ryugazaki should he need to be replaced. However, after a check-up at the medical centre, Hazuki has been cleared to drive tomorrow if he doesn't feel worse. I'm confident that all he needs is a good night's rest.”

That was good news for Rei. “But what a load of cover-up!”, he thought, for the want of a ruder term. No real explanation for missing half of the morning session was given, no mention of the arguments. The atmosphere remained heavy for the rest of the day. The dinner was near silent. The awkwardness and the need for a quiet wind-down meant that everyone at the Iwatobi Racing Team retreated to their rooms early.

As they settled into bed, Rei wished Nagisa a good night.

“No bad dreams, hopefully”, he said.

“Even if I do have some, now I know it's a mess if I don't ignore them”, Nagisa replied.

“Stop blaming yourself”, Rei remarked, turning out the light.

The stillness of the dark room was only troubled by Nagisa's movement and light sniffling, as he evacuated a little emotion. Rei could only guess what he was sad about: his studies falling apart, his love interest, his failed return to Donington, the arguments he had witnessed... But Rei didn't want to ask. He had already found out more than he had banked on that day.

“Rei-chan?”, Nagisa called softly. “There's something I want to ask you.”

“Yes, Nagisa-kun?”

“Please... Don't stay mad with Haru-chan.”

Like Gou had done that morning, Rei decided to deal with things one at a time. The most urgent, and in some respects the easiest, was to see the team through the weekend, to make sure that it kept its side of the deals it had signed. Despite agreeing to be part of the squad that weekend, Rei had requested that Gou and Jeremy act on pit wall while Haru was in the car. That would be safer, and at least he wasn't driving. As for Nagisa's problems, they weren't going to be solved quickly. Introspection would have to wait.


	21. A team on the mend

**DONINGTON 6 HOURS RACE - FINAL CLASSIFICATION  
**

Started: 42 (27 X1, 15 X2) / Classified: 32 (21 X1, 11 X2)

1\. VAG Kanto 8 - #8 Volkswagen Nardo - A.Ketchum/Misty/Brock - 244 LAPS

2\. Hey Arnold! Chrysler Racing - #16 Chysler ME Four-Twelve - Arnold/Gerald/Sid - +0'25"493

3\. Peter Perfect Racing - #4 Veritas RS III - P.Perfect/P.Pitstop/P.Pending - +0'37"802 (4 more cars on lead lap)

...

11\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - 243 LAPS

...

22\. (1st X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - 233 LAPS

23\. (2nd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #53 Kia GT4 Stinger - Tom/Jerry/Tyke - +0'45"096

24\. (3rd X2) Warner Bros. & Sis. - #99 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Y.Warner/W.Warner/D.Warner - +0'54"306

...

RET. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 141 LAPS

 

***

 

**MAKOTO TACHIBANA: DISASTER ON “OUR BOGEY TRACK”**

_Iwatobi Morning column, 30/09/2015_

Dear readers,

After a week or so of training, and admittedly a little sightseeing, we went to Donington Park, England, looking for a turn-around after the 24 hours where we retired, and hoping for a clean race. To say that didn't happen is a big understatement.

Even with a limited number of events on the calendar, an AERS season is very long, and the Le Mans month is especially trying for us, so far from home. While the TLM is the TLM, a monumental, all-absorbing challenge with a unique atmosphere, it's hard to keep that feeling going into the six-hour race two weeks afterwards, as a new university term looms on the horizon. The series' regulars are to be admired for their ability to make their motor racing programmes a seamless part of their lives.

To make matters worse, Donington seems to be our bogey track. A lot went wrong last weekend, and a lot I don't want to write about. Just going through the race is painful enough, for it was a disaster. The English race, although dry this year, to our relief, was very busy. The traffic was a real difficulty. Tried and tired, we circulated in the lower midfield until I made a bad mistake when approaching an X2 car. We collided, it was 100% my fault, and I apologised to Edgeworth-san as soon as I could. I take the opportunity to apologise again to his team, for I ended their run of good debut results, and also to mine. The guys in the pits, the whole team who had worked so hard to keep us operational this weekend, could have paid for my error with a stop-and-go, and fortunately, the stewards didn't issue any such punishment. I received a black-and-white warning flag, which again was entirely deserved, and I apologise again to everyone who was disappointed by it.

After repairing the damage, we continued for a while until another turbo issue appeared, forcing us to retire again. That said, other teams who didn't finish Le Mans did succeed in reversing their fortunes in England. Our works colleagues wound up second behind the winning number 8 Kanto Volkswagen, which reminds us of what our car is capable of. The next race, the last of the season, is at home, in Japan. Like last year, we will be the only Chrysler team taking part, and we have good memories of Suzuka. So let's hope we can shake the bad luck we've been having so we can finally show what we've got.

 

***

 

**Saturday 3 rd October 2015**

Rei climbed the stairs outside an apartment building in Tokyo. He knew the place well enough, but a tinge of nervousness haunted him as he approached the door he hoped would open. He sighed and rang the bell. After a dozen seconds, he rang again. If it had been anyone else, he would have assumed the person he was looking for was out. He even wanted to give up, but then he remembered how much Nagisa had pestered him that week. “Don't stay mad with Haru-chan”, he had repeated at the train station on the evening of their return to Japan. “Have you talked to Haru-chan yet?”, he had texted several times. Rei couldn't just leave and pretend he had patched things up.

Another ring of the bell did the trick. The door opened, and Haru was surprised. Of all the people who wouldn't let themselves in after a couple of attempts (which was all the people who weren't Makoto), he hadn't expected Rei. He didn't know what to feel though.

“I am here to make peace, Haruka-senpai”, Rei announced. “Nagisa-kun insists we mustn't stay angry.”

“Well that's fine, I'm not angry right now”, Haru replied. He didn't think he had more to say. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Please, Haruka-senpai”, Rei begged. “I want to spend time to apologise properly to you.” Haru could read the contrition on Rei's face. He wasn't one for long-form apologies, and Makoto was always quick to forgive and move on after their rare arguments, but he accepted that Rei sincerely desired a longer moment to explain himself. Like Gou had said and applied, it's best that feelings are out in the open – although Donington wasn't exactly a good example of that.

“Very well, come in. I'll make some barley tea.”

Haru's place was set up to be functional above all. A typical one-room student flat on campus, it had minimal furniture. Rei kneeled on the floor next to the low table that Haru had bought, since the one at his family home in Iwatobi Town took up too much space. At the time, Makoto had joked that Haru should keep it and put the futon on it at night. Once the drinks were served, Rei started talking.

“You were right to send me out to practice, Haruka-senpai, and you were right, I should have known it. I let my emotions get the better of me, twice. I was so worried about Nagisa-kun that I treated the team badly, and you in particular. It was absurd that I insinuate that you didn't care. Please accept my apology.”

“Of course, Rei”, Haru replied. He then realised that there was something he should perhaps mention. “By the way, I had no idea... my attitude upset you so much.”

“About that, Haruka-senpai... I was excessive. Your attitude, knowing what you want, is part of what makes you a fantastic athlete. You mustn't tone your standards down.”

“Alright, I'll be despicable again in Suzuka”, Haru smiled. Rei laughed a little louder than the joke deserved because of the relief. A weight had lifted, and the two were relaxing together again, with Rei dropping the “senpai” moniker.

Returning to a serious subject, Haru told Rei that he had been informed about what Nagisa was going through. He had asked Makoto in England, and called Nagisa once they had got back to Japan. As soon as that very evening, while Nagisa was weeping on his pillow in the next room, Haru had wanted to know. Haru had taken the initiative to pick up his phone and call Nagisa in the week. Beyond any doubt, Haru cared. Rei was touched, but the sensation subsided quickly, giving way to more disappointment in himself.

“I'm sorry, my attitude must have made it harder for you to talk to him back there...”

“It doesn't matter now, Rei”, Haru replied, as sharp as ever. “It's done.” After a short pause, Rei got back on topic.

“He should reorient”, he bitterly stated. He bit his tongue though, as he wasn't allowed to say why the situation wasn't as straight-forward as the theoretical answer suggested.

Haru agreed. “Back in high school, he had many career plans”, he recalled. “Not all were realistic, but I told him he could be anything he wanted.”

_But what does Nagisa-kun want? No offence to Haru, but he's possibly as ignorant as I am when it comes to those things._

A short while later, the younger man thanked his host for the tea and the talk, and left for another part of town to meet someone else.

 

Makoto's apartment, although still one room, seemed larger than Haru's. Makoto was content with just a shower rather than a bath, so his washroom was smaller for a similar total size. His living room was more richly furnished, somewhat more cluttered, and more warmly decorated. He had many photos framed on the walls, of close family and friends. One of them caught Rei's attention. It was from the training camp, the first trip he had with Haru, Makoto and Nagisa. There had been many more since: the Regional Tournament (twice), the National Tournament, Australia to visit Rin, Europe a few times and the USA. The four boys had literally been around the world together.

Rei didn't have long to reflect on that, as Makoto asked him if he wanted some tea. He replied that he'd had some at Haru's.

“It's a relief that you two have talked things over”, Makoto sighed. “How was he?”

“He seemed rather normal to me”, Rei answered. “Calm. Yeah, normal.”

“He'll be gladder than he looked”, Makoto said. “I must say, I've been worried about him.” Rei was surprised.

“What's been happening to him?”

“He's not had an easy time with his first big experience of world-level swimming”, Makoto explained. “And I think he's been struggling to make friends. That kind of makes sense, I guess, because the guys he sees everyday, the guys he trains with, are competitors. I'll never forget his face when I said I wanted to race him in the 200. I don't think he was wholly cool with that. Anyway, you can imagine it's hard enough for Haru to socialise without the thought that the person he's talking to might become a rival.” Makoto poured some water in two glasses and placed them on the table, then invited Rei to sit down.

“Haru was also apprehending the return home”, Makoto added hesitantly. “Rei, can I trust you to keep this to yourself?” Rei had listened carefully, and understood that Makoto didn't want to worry others with his concern. He promised not to spread the word, thinking that the information Makoto had given was all. It wasn't.

“The night before Donington”, his confession continued, “Haru asked if we could move in together.” Rei almost choked on the sip of water he was taking. “Yeah, my reaction was a bit similar”, Makoto admitted. “It was a bit out of the blue.”

“Both of you... in a one-room flat?!”, Rei gasped.

“No, I'd get a bigger place if I wasn't living alone!”, Makoto chuckled. “But that's not the point. He said not long before that he needed to work on not having his friends following him to his international swim meets, and then he says he wants to live with me...”

“You said no, then”, Rei guessed, grasping that the circumstances surrounding Haru's outburst were far from simple. “And he was disappointed.”

“I think he was. He mentioned that Spirou and Fantasio have been living together for a long time so that they're never lonely. I replied that I wouldn't refuse on principle, but it has to be practical. We work at opposite ends of town!”

“I guess that makes sense”, Rei responded. “Is... everything alright between you and Haruka?”

“Yes, it's fine”, Makoto answered. “I just needed to get that out. Thank you for your concern.”

“Makoto-senpai, can I too entrust you with something confidential?”, Rei asked gingerly.

“Sure”, Makoto replied with his classic well-meaning smile.

“It's about Nagisa-kun, and he told me not to tell anyone.” Rei was about to break a promise, and it visibly bothered him. He pressed against his glasses with a shaking hand. Makoto was worried, he was anticipating some more bad news.

“It appears Nagisa-kun is... in love with a girl at his university.” Makoto's eyes opened wide, and his smile turned in a cheeky grin.

“Wow, I wasn't expecting that!”, he laughed.

“It's not funny, Makoto”, Rei blushed. “It's delaying his decision to change course! He wants to impress her by showing that he's strong and willing to stay in vet school even if he knows it's not right for him, and that's not logical, I can't make sense of it and I don't know how to talk to him about it!”

Rei was getting worked up, so Makoto stopped laughing and tried to reassure him.

“Whoa, Rei, it's not that big a deal, really!”, he said. “I think this is a first for him, so if he could just talk to someone else about it and get some perspective, he won't let it get in the way of his career choice. A girl's point of view, perhaps...” He thought a moment before coming out with an obvious answer. “Gou!”

Rei winced. He remembered the time she thought he had a girl in his sights. She had borrowed two dozen books on love for him. He had no idea a school library would even have a section on a non-academic topic like romance! He worried that Gou would probably go overboard.

“I'm not sure...”, he mumbled. “I mean, has she been... in love?” That word, “love”, was so hard for Rei to say for some reason.

“Well, she likes men, we all know that much”, Makoto answered. “Whether she's dated a guy or not, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised either way...”

“How about you, Makoto?”, Rei asked, meaning “should I direct Nagisa to you, Makoto?” But that's not what the tall brown-haired man heard and understood. Makoto thought that Rei was rather forward, but given the stress his friend was under, he took no offence and answered.

“I have been out with a few girls.”

Rei was taken aback, so much so that he forgot to step in and correct the question.

“Nothing worth mentioning. Honestly, even Haru doesn't know. Let's just say that I know how it feels to be on the other end of a crush. Picture this: a girl I've never really talked to comes up, and I can tell she's amassed a lot of courage to ask me out. So I say yes, because I don't want to shoot down her efforts, and, yeah, she does seem nice. Then the evening comes around and it's mostly awkward. She's trying too hard. She's not coming over as natural. I don't enjoy it. I keep those times in mind whenever it happens again. It's hard for me to refuse people, but I know I have to if I feel it won't work out. Anyway, it's not important. Troublesome, more than anything else. I'm guessing you haven't faced anything of the sort?”

A couple of years ago, Rei would have laughed away the mere suggestion of a flirt. Deep inside, he still did. But because now he had close friends who were getting involved with romance, it didn't feel so distant. He smiled half-heartedly.

“Not that I know of”, he confirmed, though not keen on staying on that subject. “But I'm so puzzled by Nagisa-kun. He's so coy about this girl when he's normally enthusiastic for things he likes. And it's the expectation he thinks she has... I truly believed that if there was anyone among us who wouldn't give a damn about what other people think, it would be Nagisa-kun.”

“I would have said Haru”, Makoto replied. “Or you”, he thought. But the reality was that no-one could be immune to the influence of others. The worries of one always became of concern to all. Ever since that first training camp, swimming together had connected them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Rei: Nagisa's problems and secret crush, Haru's insecurities, Makoto's flirts... He just gets one bombshell dropped on him after another! Anyway, back to a little action next racing time, and we'll have some news from Samezuka.


	22. Street Race 2015

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously I can't provide an onboard for the Iwatobi Town circuit... It's essentially the same as in 2014, only with a slightly faster chicane, meaning less brave drivers or ones who make mistakes can be punished by being overtaken more easily into the Port Hairpin.  
> Another novelty at the Street Race is car numbers, that the participants could choose by themselves... although there was some coherence asked for at Samezuka.

**Sunday 15 th-Tuesday 17th November 2015**

Seijuro once again led the Samezuka contingent at the Iwatobi Motor Fest. The forces in presence were more balanced, with four red cars, four white cars for Iwatobi (with Gou competing instead of Rei), and four black machines for guest drivers, two on behalf of each local squad. Nagisa had suggested the TLM winners Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga, ambitiously big names for such a small event, but they accepted, and Rin had returned an invite to Kanto driver May, who came with her colleague Misty. Adding to the impressive entry list, all the associated manufacturers also sent a racecar to Iwatobi Town, so the demo run between qualifying and the Street Race was considerably bigger than in 2014. Sosuke drove the Mazda Furai this time, with Nagisa showing off his team's “Rockhopper” chassis, with which he had set the fastest lap during the Seca Sprint. May paraded her number 9 VW Nardo, while Naruto drove the Le Mans-winning McLaren, no less! Some teams would have archived the victorious machine, complete with the dirt and grime, but Team7 hadn't: “Rasengan” was clean, and set to race at Suzuka the following weekend. After the X-car show, Ai and Momo demonstrated the recently-unveiled Mazda MX-5 Cup roadster, the car that would be used during the 2016 Gala Drivers' Challenge in Japan. Drifting was the proposed activity for that event, but only Momo had the confidence to light up the rear tyres a year early and wow the crowd a bit; Ai was more concerned about not damaging a brand new vehicle.

Then it was time for the ten-lap competition. The advantage of having recently driven the hatchbacks at Mine played into the Reds' hands, and Samezuka once again locked out the front row, with Rin on pole alongside Sosuke. “First to the first corner gets five safe laps to try to pull away”, they agreed. Behind them, Makoto, the 2014 winner, had been unable to capitalise on his experience with the car against his faster team-mates. A couple of guests had stood out in qualifying, but they were mostly taking it easy, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere in the little port town.

 

**2015 IWATOBI MOTOR FEST STREET RACE STARTING GRID**

1\. Matsuoka Rin (SAM #22) / 2. Yamazaki Sosuke (SAM #55)

3\. Misty (Guest #8) / 4. Mikoshiba Momotaro (SAM #33)

5\. Hazuki Nagisa (IWA #17) / 6. Nanase Haruka (IWA #4)

7\. Uzumaki Naruto (Guest #7) / 8. Nitori Aiichiro (SAM #44)

9\. Tachibana Makoto (IWA #1) / 10. May (Guest #9)

11\. Hyuuga Hinata (Guest #77) / 12. Matsuoka Gou (IWA #12)

 

The excitement built as the grid was cleared. Kazuyoshi Hasemi, who had driven in the event the previous year, was in charge of radio communications with the guests. Rei was the tactician for Iwatobi, while Seijuro reminded his younger brother to put it in gear this time. Standing starts were unusual for endurance racers, so a few surprises were expected as the Mayor dropped the green flag... and there were! Haru made a poor start and was immediately mugged by Naruto. Ai, Makoto and even May believed they had a sniff at passing the dithering white car going into the first corner, but only Makoto managed to slip by before the train entered the chicane in single file. Up in front, Rin had got the holeshot, so he was entitled to some protection from his team-mate in the opening laps. Misty had a good feeling with the car, and looked intent on pestering Sosuke as the field headed for the Port.

On pit wall, the first split times came through. Seijuro told Momo to get closer to Misty so as to distract her from attacking the leading pair. But he had a defence task of his own: Nagisa was not far behind, though he in turn had to be wary of Naruto. His racing hero would no doubt deploy some good racecraft, so he needed to be on his guard.

Despite setting a decent qualifying time, Haru had not adapted well to the front-wheel-drive Mazda 3 with its long steering and stick-shift. He was used to having everything at hand and despised letting go of the wheel to reach for the console. He had suffered from the same problem during the Nordschleife Time Trial, where Nagisa had also beaten him on pure pace. The combination of this unfamiliar driving style and the pressure of fighting for position was overwhelming and it exhausted him rapidly. He had let Makoto get away, and struggled to hold back Ai, May and Hinata who were more familiar with this kind of vehicle; most of his competitors had a licence, and knew how to control a road car. By the end of lap 2, two of them had passed him. Fed up and with no incentive to push, he pulled into the pits to withdraw a couple of laps later.

Meanwhile, the battle for second place was getting intense between Sosuke, Misty and Momo, and Nagisa was under pressure for fifth, but overtaking was still tricky. Things started to unravel from lap 4 onwards. Stamina and concentration were becoming essential, and Momotaro was the first to blink, with an uncontrolled slide out of the corner at the town hall which meant he had to take a defensive line into the next left-hander to stop Nagisa from taking advantage. He didn't manage to get the rhythm back straight away though, and his opponent was eager to not have Naruto pounce on him; Nagisa forced his way ahead in the run up to the final roundabout. Seijuro yelled encouragements to his brother on the radio, urging him to get back at the first of the white cars. The hold-up had also given Makoto, in seventh, hope that he could catch the group.

The leading quartet had become a trio. Misty was off the hook and started to hound the back end of Sosuke's red machine. Rin had escaped slightly, so Sosuke had room to push. Moreover, Rin's safe time was almost up.

But Misty's turn to make a mistake came on lap 6. She braked a little too late for the chicane, and as a result had to press the pedal harder to avoid bumping Sosuke. The front wheels locked up, the car went straight, and Misty couldn't stop Nagisa from getting by. She was in the middle of the “hot group” now, where all the action was. A few corners later, an impatient Momo lunged deep to the inside of her, but the move was over-ambitious. The collision made both cars drift out wide, and Naruto and Makoto managed to find a passage on the inside of the dented cars. Ai didn't analyse the situation quickly enough though, and found himself having to reverse out of a tricky position, by which time May, Hinata and Gou had driven by. Both Momo and Misty decided to call it a day, so yellow flags were flown locally while volunteers, helped by the drivers themselves, pushed the vehicles off the circuit.

The final laps saw an epic battle for the lead, as Sosuke had caught back up to Rin. Seijuro was wary of a repeat of the previous year's clash, so his last radio communication, with three laps to go, was: “you want to fight for the win, I want a 1-2. Let's all get what we want, ok?” Rin attacked harder, finding the extra speed he had used to close on Makoto in the last stages of the 2014 event. But Sosuke matched it. On lap 9, they both beat Rin's pole time.

There was a duel on for third too. Naruto was showing himself in Nagisa's mirrors, flashing his lights in an attempt to distract his adversary. Rei and Haru had opposite views on who would win.

“Nagisa-kun admires Uzumaki-san too much”, the tactician said. “He's going to get intimidated.”

“If it's like in the pool, Nagisa will stretch his arms on the last lap”, Haru replied. “He's going to speed up.”

In the end, both happened. Nagisa's first split time on the tenth and final tour was his best, but he skidded at the Town Hall. In the same way as Nagisa had benefited from Momo's error, Naruto took full advantage of Nagisa's by going around the outside at the two left-handers, using better drive and cutting Nagisa's momentum in between corners. The other positions behind them remained unchanged: Makoto was a lonely fifth, Hinata was closely following May but not closely enough to attempt a pass, and Ai found Gou harder to pass than expected. Rin's sister's go-karting skills had improved nicely, and she knew how to make her car very wide despite being the slowest again in the hatchbacks.

As Naruto completed his overtake, the leaders were driving past the swim club and into the roundabout. Despite setting a scorching pace and constant pressure from Sosuke, Rin had made no mistake and took the chequered flag. Samezuka had finally won “their” event, and Seijuro was relieved that his drivers had kept it together. He congratulated his team on the radio with a call to all three surviving cars at once.

“Superb finish! Matsuoka and Yamazaki, 1-2! Great pace at the end, no-one could have caught either of you! Uzumaki got third, Nitori is P9, Momo-kun DNF. See you at the podium, boys, great job, you've treated the town to a super race!”

Once the cooling-down lap was done, the finishing cars parked on the road outside the swim club where the starting-block makeshift podium would be used again. The atmosphere between Rin and Sosuke was very different compared to after the 2014 race. Ultimately, the two childhood friends had shown that they were evenly matched. Sosuke was beaten, but not disappointed, and showed his appreciation for the duel by repeatedly patting his rival on the back. For Rin, this was a much-needed result on a personal level. He hadn't won anything that year in the pool, so, even if it was only a side-event in his secondary sport, he savoured the moment.

The joyous ambiance continued in the changing tent after the podium, with Rin and Sosuke joking lots, and Ai congratulating them. Seijuro looked on, glad to see the contrast with the previous year, but he felt detached from the bond his trio of drivers had. He was a team leader, but not a team player; he had no desire to enter a relay for instance, which set him apart from the others. In the pool, he competed individually, and he would soon be fighting to beat Rin at Olympic qualifying tournaments. Their dreams were about to collide, and this could strain relationships immensely. The fear of tension in the squad had been a major factor in Seijuro's choices for the motor racing team's future.

“ _Nii-chan_ , have you told Yamazaki-senpai about next year?”, Momo asked him discreetly. His older brother's head dipped.

“Not yet”, he replied, with a serious expression on his face. He recalled what had happened at Donington. Samezuka had also experienced a difficult Friday morning there, with Sosuke and Seijuro arguing about giving practice time to Momo.

“ _Calling Momotaro out all this way for half an hour of FP1 is ridiculous, no other team does this!... Besides, we had your word that it was just us three for the rest of the season.”_

In a huff, Sosuke had declined to drive in that session, giving his stint to Momo. The two talked it over afterwards, with Momo saying he didn't want to get in the way of Sosuke's dream of racing with Rin. Sosuke wasn't holding a grudge against his youngest team-mate though. On the contrary, he sympathised. After all, Momo always showed huge excitement about driving, he absolutely loved it! Sosuke didn't want to get in the way of Momo's passions either. Instead, he had put Seijuro under pressure for a decision to be made quickly regarding who will be in the car in 2016.

“How do you think he'll take the news?”, Momo asked. One of Seijuro's eyes twitched with discomfort.

“I honestly have no idea.”

 

**2015 IWATOBI MOTOR FEST STREET RACE RESULT**

1\. Matsuoka Rin (SAM #22), 10 LAPS

2\. Yamazaki Sosuke (SAM #55), +0”8

3\. Uzumaki Naruto (Guest #7), +9”4

4\. Hazuki Nagisa (IWA #17), +11”7

5\. Tachibana Makoto (IWA #1), +17”0

6\. May (Guest #9), +23”2

7\. Hyuuga Hinata (Guest #77), +25”6

8\. Matsuoka Gou (IWA #12), +34”3

9\. Nitori Aiichiro (SAM #44), +35”0

OUT. Misty (Guest #8), 5 LAPS

OUT. Mikoshiba Momotaro (SAM #33), 5 LAPS

OUT. Nanase Haruka (IWA #4), 4 LAPS

***

A couple of evenings later, Seijuro visited Sosuke's apartment in Tokyo. He had promised his driver “answers”, and, as had transpired when he had spoken with his brother at the Motor Fest, he was nervous. He was more than prepared to justify and stand behind his decision though. He was convinced it was the right one.

Sosuke cordially invited his manager in and prepared some tea. He maintained his distant yet polite demeanour, but he was anxious too. Seijuro had said in Germany that any of the four drivers could be axed for 2016. And he was about to find out who was on the way out. Once the drinks were served, the two sat, and Seijuro said there was little point in making the suspense drag on with long declarations.

So he simply announced: “I am the one who will leave the team.”

Sosuke couldn't stop his mouth from opening wide, breaking his stoic posture. He was speechless. He would ask why, but Seijuro beat him to it.

“As you know, Sadako is expecting. We discussed it, and we think that my swimming career will keep me away from home long enough.” Sosuke quickly saw that, as shocking as it was, the decision was logical. That summer, he'd had World Championships in Russia and two months in Europe back-to-back, during which his pregnant wife had legitimately been on his mind a lot. Family life, swimming, motor racing: something had to give. Sosuke's surprises weren't over though.

“The reason I wanted to tell you first is... (well, first-ish, Momo-kun knows, but you know what I mean)... The reason is, I think you're the best person to take over.”

“Y-you want... me to... become team principal?”, Sosuke stuttered.

“You have the qualities, I believe”, Seijuro replied. “You're principled, firm, responsible. You also seem to have a vision of how you'd organise the team. Not to mention that you're capable of standing up to Matsuoka, which is something I've found difficult to do because we are also rivals in the pool.” For Sosuke, it was all very sudden.

“I... I don't know, Seijuro...”

“You have time, Yamazaki. I'm telling you now, but I intend to resign after the February race in Australia. I'd very much like you to drive there with Matsuoka and Nitori. I know it would mean lots to the three of you, particularly Matsuoka in his second home. What happens over the rest of the season would be in your hands, should you accept.”

Sosuke was still gobsmacked. Seijuro took a confident sip of tea, and moved on to discussing the coming weekend's race at Suzuka. It was shaping up to be a very tricky one, as rough weather was expected to hit on the Sunday.

“Rain is a leveller”, Seijuro commented, “it's a chance to surprise our adversaries! I'm optimistic.”

“It can also end in disappointment”, Sosuke thought, pessimistically. Both wet races he had taken part in had ended in him crashing in one way or another.

The talk was short, as Seijuro had to return home. He was glad to have broken the news to Sosuke, but before he left, he insisted that his driver mustn't tell anyone else in the team; he would make his announcement in Australia.

“You want it to be a secret in case you change your mind before then?”, Sosuke smirked.

“No, because until then, I'm still the boss, and you'll do what I tell you to!”, Seijuro replied cheekily. He was going to miss being in charge.


	23. Setting the tone

Commentator's Comments, Fri. 20/11/2015 at 13:28

**SUZUKA PRE-PRACTICE NOTES: PEUGEOT'S PLANS AND THE FIELD'S RESPONSE TO PARIS TERROR ATTACKS**

_Journal Spirou Peugeot Sport made their return to Japan a big story late October, and the Belgian squad clearly want to be headline news throughout this weekend, which started this morning with the team becoming the first to make public its intentions for 2017._

2016 will see changes to the colour scheme, red and white instead of black and yellow, and to the driver line-up, with Sophie Seccotine returning for Spa and Suzuka, but the following year, things will change under the Onyx's skin. Gone will be the twin-turbo Diesel V8, and in will go the twin-turbo petrol V6 from Sébastien Loeb's Pikes Peak record-holding 208, a change permitted under the upcoming “Open” class rules. Still coupled with the 80 bhp KERS, the new power unit will have a combined power of 955 bhp – over 100 more than the current most powerful machine on the grid, the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve. Although the cars are levelled by the BoP, concerns that the opening of the engine regulations could lead to an expensive arms race may be justified.

“ _We originally submitted a query to the organisers, asking if we could use the Vision Gran Turismo unveiled this year”_ , said Pacôme de Champignac. _“It was discussed, and the answer came too late for us to include in our Halloween video, hence the announcements today. And no, virtual VGT designs are not eligible for the current X1 class, which will continue alongside Open in the future. So, our plan B was to go into Open by taking the engine depicted in that car, which exists, it is a proven engine that competed at Pikes Peak, and putting it in the Onyx, which is a proven chassis. Either way, we are satisfied, and happy to confirm our involvement in the sport beyond 2016.”_

Meanwhile, for its last race in black and yellow, the team will be running without sponsors on the back end, leaving the space for messages of support for the victims of last Friday's savage attacks in Paris. The main bumper sticker is comprised of a French flag and a Belgian flag, linked by the word “ENSEMBLE” – “together”. Around it, the drivers and pit crew have expressed themselves.

Several other teams are running with an extra French flag or Eiffel Tower sticker, but Looney Tunes Alpine have taken it one step further: the number 61 car will be plain black. Elmer Fudd explained the livery: _“we've gone for very discrete logos as a mark of respect. The base is carbon black, with just the number and a few orange decals standing out. The race ends at night, so we thought we should put some flashy and reflective bits on for safety reasons.”_ The number 60 will be running in Alpine's usual blue and orange, with the same muted sponsor presence as on the sister car.

***

**Friday 20 th November 2015**

Haru, Makoto and Rei made the trip to the Suzuka Circuit on the Friday morning, taking the same train from Tokyo and travelling light, which Makoto appreciated. Everything was in place when they arrived; Gou had overseen the logistics between the Street Race and the 8 Hours and done a great job. Having met the pit crew in the garage, the boys headed for the motorhome, dropped off their bags and changed into their racing uniforms. Makoto's phone rang while he was threading his legs into his overalls.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mako-chan!”, Nagisa spoke on the other end. “I'm taking my last break, I should be at the track in around an hour. Sorry, it's taken a bit longer than planned.” Makoto checked his watch.

“Ok, you'll be on time. Ride safely! Haru and I can go out first so you can settle down a bit.” Haru, wearing only his swimsuit as was usual for him when he took a bath, popped his towelled head out of the bathroom to ask who Makoto was talking to.

“It was Nagisa, he's an hour away”, he answered.

“He's a fool to come here on his motorcycle”, said Haru, who wouldn't consider being anything other than a passenger when he travelled. Makoto smiled and took the positives.

“Well, he wanted to make the trip interesting”, he replied. He thought that Nagisa was quite brave to take on such a long journey by himself: four hours from Tottori to Suzuka. Haru shut the bathroom door again to get his kit on.

 

After a snack, the team members who were present convened in the garage to discuss the plan for first free practice and the car's set-up. A few journalists were roving around, looking for some pre-action declarations. One stopped by at Iwatobi and asked if Nagisa would share his impressions before his first laps at Suzuka, but the driver still hadn't arrived. The blond barged into the garage just under an hour prior to the session starting. He had changed into his overalls, but was complaining about some stiffness in his back.

“That's another reason why you shouldn't have ridden here”, Haru commented.

“Another reason for us to go out first”, Makoto preferred. He observed that Nagisa could visit the physio before driving. With that suggestion made, Nagisa was gone, he had run out as quickly as he had breezed in only a moment earlier.

“You thought he'd be exhausted, didn't you, Haru?”, Makoto laughed.

“Nothing that excites Nagisa-kun ever exhausts him”, Rei remarked, shaking his head.

By the time his massage was finished and he returned to the garage, Nagisa saw Haru preparing to take the wheel. “Nearly 2:30 already?!” Time seemed to be flying by. He quietly approached Haru who was putting his gloves on, and pulled the classic “tap on the other shoulder” trick on him. It worked.

“Haha! You fell for it, Haru-chan!” But the man in the dolphin-decorated helmet wasn't in the mood for practical jokes at that moment, as he was trying to keep his focus.

“I will turn some good laps as soon as possible”, he said. “Make sure you look at the data in relation to the circuit. By the time your turn comes around, everyone will be at speed.”

“Y-yeah, sure thing, Haru-chan”, Nagisa replied more humbly. He hadn't driven at Suzuka the previous year because of his injury, so he had to learn the circuit. Besides playing it in a video game, he had the 2014 graphs at his disposal, and he was going to compare those to the visual references Haru would give him after his stint. Nagisa would thus have a clear view of how to navigate the course and get into the groove quickly.

But once Haru was out on track, Makoto noticed from pit wall that Nagisa wasn't doing much. After some minutes of listening to Haru go through system checks and report on the track's condition, he decided to go back into the garage to pass the information on, and he brought up the subject of Nagisa's idleness while he was at it.

“By the way, shouldn't you be studying the data?”, he asked gently. His fellow driver's shoulders lifted.

“You know theory isn't my thing these days...”, he mumbled back.

“Still, you want to be at pace as soon as possible.”

“There are three practice sessions, Mako-chan, why the hurry?” The remark irritated Makoto slightly, but he had no time to argue back. A hysterical yell from the circuit announcer was impossible to ignore.

“WAH, CRASHU! WAAAH! KRAISULE CRASHU! NANASE CRASHUUUU!”

The live pictures showed the familiar number 17 car stopped on the left-hand side of the track with the front end smashed and a small fire near one of the wheels. It was on the way to the final chicane, which followed the dauntingly fast 130R corner. Evidently, with no other damaged vehicle nearby, Haru hit a barrier head-on at high speed.

“Haru-chan!”, Nagisa shouted, instantly running out to pit wall where he found Rei frozen with shock. When Nagisa had his huge crash at Donington, Rei had been on the radio straight away, but not this time. He was gobsmacked, staring silently at the screens. He failed to react when Haru called him.

“Rei... [cough] Rei, there's a fire at the front, I'm getting out.” Gou, who was also stunned, nudged the race engineer, urging him to respond.

“Oh, um... Copy that, Haru”, he stuttered, running a hand through his hair in disbelief.

“Rei-chan?”, a call came from behind him. He saw Nagisa waiting for news.

“He... He's alright”, Rei managed to say. “He's getting out. He's fine”, he repeated as he turned back to the screens, which confirmed that Haru was conscious and walking. But the big question remained: how had this happened?

In the garage, Makoto was speechless. He hadn't been too worried about Haru since he could sense that he hadn't been knocked out and wasn't in pain. Of course, Makoto was relieved when he saw Haru out of the car, but he was mostly puzzled. A replay came on, and showed the Chrysler rounding the outside of an X2 backmarker through 130R and drifting out wide, onto the grass verge where the car snapped right, hit the tyre wall and spun back out across the track, thankfully collecting no other vehicle. Makoto couldn't believe his eyes.

“How?... Haru doesn't make mistakes...”, he thought, realising that his friend usually complimented him for his steadiness in the car. “Reliable”, was the word he had used at Le Mans. If Makoto had been reliable, surely Haru had been downright perfect. Until then.

Though the driver was well, the incident brought out the red flag to make the task of clearing the debris easier for the track workers. How much repair the barrier needed would decide how long the stoppage would be, but Race Control quickly assured the entrants that the clock was stopped, so the break did not count as part of the session. Next to a marshal who was putting his red flag away, certain that all the cars bar the one in front of him had returned to the pits, stood Haru, arms crossed, contemplating the wreck. He only moved again when another marshal invited him to get on the back of a scooter that would take him straight to the Medical Centre. All that time, the helmet hid his expression, but Rei and Makoto agreed upon seeing the scene on the TVs: Haru was mad.

His walking was stiff, which caught the attention of the doctors. But it quickly became apparent that this was due to emotion rather than injury.

“How do you feel, Nanase-san?”, one nurse asked.

“I feel like slapping myself”, he replied, deadpan.

“That's one for your psychiatrist”, she smiled back. “For now, try to relax. Let us know if you feel any pain.”

The medical team scrutinised him closely for half an hour, running many tests to exclude the possibility of a concussion. Everything seemed normal, but they told him to not overwork that evening and report back the next morning before third free practice to make absolutely sure he was safe. With the doctor's orders, Haru stepped out of the examination room situated above the pits to find Gou waiting.

“Hey, I'm so sorry”, he said, just loud enough for her to hear over the rumble of the cars which had resumed practice. “The others must be angry at me for destroying the car”, he added. He certainly was, but he was missing the point.

“They were mostly worried about you”, Gou replied gently. “I sure was. Thank goodness you're alright. The others are in the motorhome now, and...” Her pause caught Haru's attention. He stopped walking as if to say he wouldn't move until she finished.

“I'd need you to talk to Makoto.”

 

“Haru-chan! You're ok!”, shouted Nagisa as soon as he caught sight of Haru. He ran up and put his arms around him.

“We were all relieved to see you get out of the car, Haruka”, Rei added, patting Haru on the shoulder.

“I'm sorry for making you worry”, said the driver, still in his overalls. “And I'm sorry about the crash. It was my mistake. Is the car back yet?”

“Yes, the team's looking at it”, Rei answered. “Obviously there's a lot of work to do at the front. Makoto saw it and...”, he continued, only to be interrupted by Nagisa.

“He walked out of the garage without saying a word!”

“And he's not said a word since then. The look on his face when he left, though...”

“We can't cheer him up! Please help, Haru-chan!” The pair's voices were tainted with panic. They stopped talking when Haru nodded and walked into the motorhome.

Makoto got up as soon as Haru entered the lounge. The dark-haired man could tell his friend had snapped. Makoto was usually optimistic and on top of things, so it was no surprise that seeing him like this had thrown the others off balance. Haru, however, had seen it before. Sadness, frustration and awkwardness were all mixed up in Makoto's expression. He wanted to hold Haru, hesitated for a short moment before latching his arms around him, breathing a trembling sigh of relief. Haru didn't return the gesture, whispering “I'm sorry I worried you” instead. The hug didn't last long, and Haru went to the point. “I'm fine, but you're not”, he said. Makoto sat back down. Haru's firm immobility told him that, like that evening at Brands Hatch a year earlier, he wasn't going to escape. So he took his time to seek after his words carefully.

“All I wanted was a clean weekend”, he mumbled. “No mechanicals, no incidents... no crashes.”

“I'm sorry, I made a mistake”, Haru repeated.

“I know, and I don't mean that against you. I just... It's just the last thing we needed, I feel. We surely aren't meeting the manufacturer's objectives...” Haru's eyes opened wide. Makoto had expressed disappointment with the turns the season had taken, but he had never clearly mentioned any manufacturer-set goals.

“What are the objectives?”, he asked.

“I don't know”, Makoto admitted, “but we've got no results this year while the other team has won races, not crashed, and so on...” It was clear that the goals were in Makoto's head rather than written on paper. Haru sat next to his friend and raised a question he had last asked when they had both entered the 200 metres.

“What do you race for, Makoto?” Silence. “Let me give you my answer. You remember the Ferris wheel at Le Mans, right?” Makoto nodded. “Well, this race ends at night.” Haru didn't need to say any more, as Makoto knew what he meant: Haru wanted to race in the dark again.

At the lounge door, Rei, Nagisa and Gou stood silently after Nagisa had found that he wasn't patient enough to wait outside. What Haru had said left Rei and Nagisa confused, since they were in a different pod on the big wheel at Le Mans, while Gou wasn't. She understood Haru. However, what he said next resonated equally with all five of them.

“There's that, but I also want to have this relay with you and Nagisa. I want to be excited by watching you, like I was last year. Nagisa's TLM start, your fight with Sosuke here...”

“But fights can lead to accidents”, Makoto protested. “I wouldn't want to stop you from having your night stint.”

“If we don't make it that far, then it wasn't to be”, Haru replied, which didn't make Makoto feel any surer. “The point is, I want to make the most of this race, especially if it's our last. A relay with you is never a small event to me.”

“To me neither!”, Nagisa interrupted loudly.

“Nagisa? Rei? When did you...?”, Makoto asked. Neither he nor Haru had noticed them.

“I'm sorry for barging into this, Mako-chan”, Nagisa bowed and continued, “but I feel strongly about this too! Last year, I had to sit out the 8 Hours and it made me very sad. Not just because I enjoy the driving and because I feared I wouldn't get another chance, but also because I wasn't out there with you, Rei-chan and Haru-chan, having great fights.”

“I know it's been a difficult season, Makoto”, Rei intervened, one hand brought up to his glasses. “But by comparing ourselves with the works team and getting upset with each other, have we lost sight of what we're here for? What _you_ brought us here for?”

Rei was right. The team was Makoto's idea. His sentence from two years earlier which had started it all echoed in his mind.

“ _Wouldn't it be fun to try endurance racing?_ ”

“Fun”, a word Haru had used at Le Mans. Regardless of the qualifying he hadn't been happy with, missing out on more night running and the team's retirement, Haru had enjoyed the race.

“Come on, Makoto. Let's do this”, Makoto heard. He looked up. Nagisa and Rei were smiling, showing determination to get going again. In between, Haru was offering his hand.

“Let's see how the mechanics are doing”, the voice continued.Makoto grabbed Haru's hand to hoist himself up.

“ _Hai_ ”, he said, with his warm smile back on his face. Haru returned the expression.

On the way to the garage, Haru made Rei take a step back to walk with him so that he could have a quick, private word.

“I know I said I'd like to drive the finish at night, but don't take that as an obligation. I will obey you, no questions asked.” The last statement was particularly meaningful given the argument the two had in England. Haru had also seen Rei put up a race plan the previous year, and it had struck him how much he enjoyed it, so he didn't want to unduly weigh on the task.

“ _Hai_ , Haruka”, Rei answered, “I'm sure I can set a late stint aside for you!”

The team had regrouped, but a cold shower awaited them in the garage.

“The chassis is damaged, this is going to take all night to repair”, Jeremy diagnosed. “But there's another problem. We asked the official over there about lifting our curfew past 10 PM, and he said we need a solution for FP2, because the drivers have to log night laps.”

“What if they don't?”, Gou asked.

“I don't know, but he was pretty clear about it: 10 night laps each”, was the answer. “At Le Mans, it's just the rookies who have to do night laps in practice or else they can't take part in the race, but you guys have all done Le Mans...”

“...but Nagisa-kun has never driven here”, Rei quickly remarked. “Le Mans laps may not count, that's why he insisted. So we have to get Nagisa-kun out there as soon as possible in FP2, but wait a minute, we have the spare car. Wouldn't it be quicker to get that out?”

“Well, we'd have to clear the back of the garage to get this out and that in”, Jeremy explained. “Then, 'Rockhopper' is in the high-DF Laguna config and gearing, so there's a lot of set-up work to do, put in the right suspensions and dampers...” He paused for a moment while he took another look at the front of the battered 'Beluga'. “Yeah, should still be quicker”, he assessed.

“If it gives us a better chance of doing FP2, let's do that”, Rei ordered. “Gou-san, would you please talk to the officials and clarify that night lap thing?”

“ _Hai_.”

“And Nagisa-kun, you really must study that data. You're going to have to be quick out of the box tonight to get as many laps in as you can. Get the charts out from earlier and talk it over with Haruka and Makoto.”

“ _Hai_ , Rei-chan”, Nagisa acknowledged, while Haru and Makoto nodded silently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, the dialogue here took ages! It's been a long fic and I think I lost sight of the characters for a time, so I hope this is fine. Rewatching some key scenes from Free! helped.  
> The penalty for failing to complete night practice requirements is genuine. At the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2013, 21 cars were sent to the back of the grid because crews had not done their night laps due to several red flag periods which reduced running time drastically.
> 
> Blog content this time out: Nagisa on his motorbike [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/143854325456/actually-im-making-substantial-changes-to) (yay! I drew a thing again!), onboard at Suzuka [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/144108427811/onboard-at-suzuka-with-satoshi-motoyama-in-a), and that commentator's voice [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/144157639926/faster-23-about-to-go-up-featuring-this).


	24. Saturday Night at Suzuka

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a friendly reminder that my choice of chapter titles can be very poor... I work without them when writing.
> 
> Usually the cameos are other cartoon or anime characters in the cars, but this time, it's different.

**Saturday 21 st November 2015**

With the eight-hour race ending in the evening on Sunday, party time for the fans at Suzuka was on the Saturday night. Before that, and despite the overcast, slightly nippy weather, many spectators did the pitwalk to meet the racers and get some autographs. The cars were impounded after qualifying, so the mechanics were getting a breather, and few of them deserved a break more than the ones at Iwatobi. It had been a handful to set the spare up, but the drivers were reporting a good feeling. However, Haru set a time which would have only been good enough for sixteenth on the grid, so that good feeling wasn't showing on the timing sheets just yet.

The “Iwatobi Supporters Club” had organised a longer trip to Suzuka that year. Led by Gou's friend Chigusa and Coach Sasabe, those present wanted to show the boys the accessories and banners they had made for the occasion. The drivers posed with the club's main banner, which read “Iwatobi Racing Team FOR THE WIN!” with a picture of them on the 2014 TLM podium. It made Makoto feel a bit embarrassed, since the discussion the day before had left him knowing that a specific result wasn't the goal.

“It's encouragement, not expectation”, Rei told him. But Sasabe's next question made him eat those words somewhat.

“By the way, I thought you guys would qualify much higher. Is something wrong?”

“We're being sent to the back of the grid because of the car change”, Rei explained briefly. Technically, the penalty was because Nagisa had only completed seven of the ten mandatory night laps on Friday, but that in turn was due to delays in getting the spare chassis ready, so he made the shortcut. “In that case, there was no point in going flat-out in QP”, Rei continued. “But with Nagisa-kun starting, there should be lots of overtaking early on!”

“I hope so!”, the coach replied. “I've bet a few thousand yen with the swim club supervisor at Samezuka that you'll at least beat them!... Er, no pressure, of course.”

“Hey, are you guys coming to the concert later?”, Chigusa asked, changing the subject.

“You bet, we all are!”, Nagisa shouted, although he pulled a face when she added that his sisters would turn up for it aswell. Makoto laughed. His family would arrive the next morning for their first time spectating on-site, along with other families and friends.

 

Meanwhile, all three of Nagisa's older sisters came to the track for dinner and the festivities. The Samezuka drivers also joined the Iwatobi group for the evening. Sosuke remarked that they had finally succeeded in seeing a concert together after the miss at Le Mans. But somehow the boys had once again managed to not register which band was playing. That wasn't the case for Nagisa's sisters, who were very excited and couldn't wait for the first song.

“I bet it'll be _Fuwa Fuwa Time_ ”, one said.

“Nonono, that's their best, they'll leave it for the end!”, another replied.

“Who is it then?”, Makoto dared to ask.

“It's Ho-Kago Tea Time!”, Nagisa's oldest sibling squeaked back.

“These girls are _our_ generation!”, another added proudly. Formed during their high school years, the group reunited to compose and play together regularly, and had gained some notoriety – enough to be invited to front the entertainment programme of an international sport event. Momo was looking them up on his phone, and his eyes opened wide when he found a picture.

“Wow! They're pretty cute! Nitori-kun, we have to get closer!”, he ordered.

“ _We_ have to?”, Ai protested. “But Momo-kun, you know I-WAH!” There were no “buts” as far as Momo was concerned: he grabbed his friend by the arm, yanking him away from the rest who just looked on while Rin quipped about the “Mikoshiba instinct: girls? gone!”

Moments later, the first guitar riff effectively announced _Fuwa Fuwa Time_ , and Nagisa's sisters went crazy. Gou and Chigusa danced with them, while Rei took a moment to decide what he thought of the band.

“From here, I guess they are good-looking...”, he said. Nagisa heard.

“Ah, good-looking, you say, Rei-chan?”, he grinned and winked. Rei turned red immediately. He knew he was in trouble. “Hey guys, Rei-chan thinks the singer's pretty!”, Nagisa shouted, leaning heavily on Rei, who hid behind his glasses.

“That's not true...”, Rei groaned.

“Oh, then is it the bass player?”, Nagisa asked. “I didn't think you'd prefer dark hair, but...”

“Never mind gawping, get your brainy ass over here and dance, Rei-kun!”, Gou ordered.

“Yeah, come on, Rei-kun, I'm sure you dance _beautifully_!”, Chigusa added.

“Unlikely”, the blue-haired man replied shyly. “I haven't learned the theories of-WAH!” He wasn't given the time to finish, as the two girls pulled him forward, making him wonder if he would have actually preferred being teased by Nagisa a bit longer on what he had said.

“Don't worry, Rei-kun”, Chigusa continued, “just do whatever! No-one's watching.”

“That's not true, Nagisa-kun is watching”, Rei mumbled. He could imagine Nagisa's malicious eyes behind his back, observing him and chalking this up as another anecdote to pick out whenever he wanted to embarrass him. When he looked around though, Nagisa wasn't recording his every move: he was laughing and trying to get Makoto to tag along.

“Oh yeah, good idea, come on Makoto!”, said Gou, before shouting over to the remaining Samezuka boys. “And you two aswell!”

“This really isn't my kind of music, Gou”, Rin answered.

“Come on, _onii-chan_! Show us a sight we've never seen before!”

“Wow, she's very pushy tonight!”, Rei thought. Around him, the others were loosening up. Nagisa needed no encouragement of course. When the lead singer asked the crowd “do you like food?” to introduce a medley of _Curry_ _N_ _ochi Rice_ with a cover of 10cc's _Life is a Minestrone_ , Nagisa may have yelled “YES!” the most excitedly of all.

As far as insisting on joining in went, Haru was left alone. He wasn't a fond dancer, and if the others were enjoying themselves, then so was he.

“Well, Haru? I remember you moving more at the Gala”, a voice called. That accent and specific way of pronouncing his name were unmistakable. Haru turned around and saw Spirou and Fantasio, the latter adjusting his trademark red bow-tie.

“The band's quite good. Have you heard them before?”, he asked. Haru shook his head.

“I thought you didn't do concerts anymore”, he said, remembering another detail from his conversation with Spirou in Belgium.

“We also stopped doing Japan for a while, yet here we are”, the red-haired racer answered without really answering.

“Unrelated, but it's a pity you guys are starting so low”, said Fantasio. Haru shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to talk about it, and with the surrounding noise, he didn't want to say much either. “What are you aiming for from back there?”

“Nothing precise”, Haru responded. “What are you aiming for from up where you are?”

“The win, nothing less!”, Fantasio boasted. “A Japanese crew won Le Mans, so we've come to beat the Japanese in _their_ back yard!” Spirou chuckled at his colleague's typically confident answer, before subtly ordering him to move along.

“Let's not blabber on about the race, Fantasio, this concert won't last forever”, he said. “See you around, Haru! Enjoy the evening!” With that, Haru also decided not to think about the next day. His goals were not Spirou's, and never had been. The team was about enjoying his friends' company, so he stepped forward and joined the dancing, jumping and erratically moving group in front of him, to the surprise of some.

“Well, he did dance a little at the Gala, remember”, Makoto mentioned.

“Yeah, I do remember”, said Rin. “He looked petrified, as if he expected someone to come up and bite him.” Makoto just smiled. “Funny, he sort of was!”, he thought, recalling Haru's anxiety that evening. There was no such worry on this mind this time though, and his relative drop in inhibition helped Rei feel less self-conscious. As a result, no-one was having a bad or awkward time.

 

On the way back through the paddock after the concert and fireworks, the youngest team members were still excited. Momo thought he was in love again, while Nagisa hummed one of the last tunes played that evening in repeat mode. He then wondered if they could venture into music next. Rei was sceptical.

“Why not?”, Nagisa retorted. “We formed racing teams even though we hadn't driven cars before.”

“Ok, let's assume that hypothesis. What would you play?”, Rei asked.

“Guitar”, Nagisa answered. “No, drums!”

“Nono, I want the drums!”, Momo interrupted.

“Ok, guitar. Or I could just sing!”, Nagisa concluded.

“You must be joking”, Rei scoffed.

“What?! Why?”

“Every time at the karaoke, you sing out of tune! It's not beautiful!”

“I do that on purpose, it's funnier that way”, Nagisa argued back. “But we do have Mako-chan who has an amazing singing voice!”

“Haha, thanks but there's no way I could sing on a stage!”, Makoto declined, smiling. “That performance in high school when Gou directed the club presentation was enough exposure for me!”

“Really? Then explain that time you entered the muscle contest”, Gou replied.

“That wasn't of my own accord!”, Makoto protested.

“While I don't know people in the music business, I can recommend Sosuke on the recorder”, Rin joked.

“Only if you take up the cello, Rin!”, Sosuke laughed. “Anyway, we've reached your motorhome, guys.”

“Ok, well, everyone have a good rest”, said Makoto. “Big race tomorrow!”

“Yeah, make sure your eyes are wide open, Samezuka, for Nitro Nagisa will be breathing down your necks at the start!”, Nagisa warned. Rei and Ai groaned at the cringe-worthy comment, while Rin grinned, bearing his shark teeth. He appreciated the competitive tease, and gave some fighting talk back.

“Even if you could catch us, we'd make it especially hard for you to pass us”, he promised.

“Aha, but I'm thin and flexible, I'll wriggle past where you'll least expect me to!”

“Your car won't be any slimmer just because you're driving it”, Sosuke remarked.

“Come on, it's too late to be taunting each other”, Makoto intervened. “Let's get some rest and let our driving do the talking tomorrow, alright?” He thus not only got his way, but also the last word in the light-hearted argument.


	25. Round 7 - Japan

****SUZUKA 8 HOURS ANIME RACE GRID & STARTING DRIVERS** **

Qualified: 33 (21 X1, 12 X2) / Start 11 AM local

 _Row 1_ \- 1. Kanto VW #8 (Ash Ketchum) / 2. Spirou Peugeot #23 (Spirou)

 _Row 2_ \- 3. Titans Lamborghini #5 (Raven) / 4. Team7 McLaren #7 (Naruto Uzumaki)

...

 _Row 7_ \- 13. Samezuka Mazda #22 (Rin Matsuoka) / 14. T-Rex Shelby #21 (Bruno)

 _Row 11_ \- 21. Iwatobi Chrysler #17 (Nagisa Hazuki)*

...

 _X2 Row 1_ \- 1. Looney Tunes Alpine #60 (Daffy Duck) / 2. Rocket Alfa Romeo #80 (Jessie)

 _X2 Row 2_ \- 3. MGM Kia #52 (Droopy) / 4. MGM Kia #53 (Tom)

*penalty (insufficient night practice)

***

**Sunday 22 nd November 2015**

Chigusa and Goro Sasabe had everything planned for the Iwatobi Supporters Club's trip to Suzuka. A couple of minibuses were rented to take the group – including the families of all four boys, even Haru's parents had made it – from the hotels to the circuit, which they reached early to avoid queueing and to be able to pick their spot in the grandstands, their target being opposite the number 17's garage. Not many spectators had got up for the morning warm-up session, so they easily found a space big enough for them. Also arriving early were Kisumi Shigino and his younger brother Hayato, who noticed the bird mascot and banners upon their arrival.

“You should have signed up”, Goro remarked.

“Yeah, but I wanted to keep open the option of leaving early just in case Hayato doesn't like the noise over such a long period”, Kisumi replied. “Plus, it's going to chuck it down this afternoon, he might not like that either.”

“Ah, well we came prepared!”, the brash coach proudly stated. “We got these yellow rain sheets so that nothing will stop us from cheering our boys on! Even Miho-san has left her parasol at home and got a proper umbrella!”, he teased.

“They're rolling out the car!”, Makoto's sister Ran interrupted loudly. The cars had been returned to the teams at 7:30, so that some work could be done before the 45-minute session starting at 8:30, and the Iwatobi Racing Team had used the time to make adjustments to the set-up. After the car, Rei, Gou, Jeremy came out, each wearing an instantly recognisable team jacket. Makoto followed, carrying his helmet and gloves, so he would be the first to drive. His siblings couldn't resist the urge to call out to him.

“Mako-chan! Mako-chan!”, they shouted. Their mother nearly stepped in to tell them to let him prepare in peace, but then Kisumi and Hayato joined in. “Makoto!” yelled one, waving; “Tachibana-kochi!”, yelled the other. At that point, everyone sort of decided that they might as well join in and eke a reaction out of the crew. Rei and Makoto remained focused on their discussion, until the race engineer seemed to point the group out to his driver, before walking over to pit wall with not as much as a smile on his face. He was concentrating on his tasks, while Makoto was more easy-going, and he waved back with a beaming smile. Nagisa had heard the shouts and run out, striking a pose next to Makoto in case anyone was taking pictures. One of his sisters was, affectionately commenting that he was “such a goofball”.

Less than a minute later, the first engines could be heard starting up. Makoto got moving not long after the green light was given at the end of pit road, and all the supporters could do next was wait for him to pass by. The first car to complete a lap was the Mazda, and the scream from the rotary engine, higher in pitch than they had heard at Iwatobi Town during the Motor Festival, was a stunning sound to start the day with.

“Oh yeah, Rin and Sosuke are also in this race”, Kisumi remembered. Other cars drove by, including the surprisingly quiet Peugeot and the two Shelbys in formation, their V10s producing a rumble that could be felt through the ground.

“Here he comes!”, shouted Chigusa as the blue and white Chrysler appeared coming out of the sweeping final right-hander. The group applauded and waved their banners as the car drove by. As the session went on, with no audience to get in their way, they had a good opportunity to observe the pit stops and driver changes. All three drivers had a turn, and when the chequered flag fell, Haru had put the Iwatobi car in fifth place.

“That's more like it!”, said Goro as he consulted the timing app.

 

The fans then had about an hour to kill before pre-race ceremonies began. Makoto's siblings wanted to go on the Ferris wheel, so the Tachibanas and the Shiginos headed for that. It turned out that 9:30 was the best time to do the ride: there was no queue, they weren't missing any on-track action and the operator said the attraction would probably close in the afternoon because of the incoming wind and rain. It was a pity to not see the cars going round, but the view of the unique figure-of-eight track was impressive. When they got back to the grandstands, they found that the Hazukis and Ryugazakis had fetched some snacks, enough for everyone to keep going until lunch. Makoto's father suggested that they return the favour in the afternoon, to which Rei's father replied jokingly: “sure, if you want to get wet getting them. Why do you think we made the move this morning?”

Opposite them, the pit lane was rather inanimate. The cars were in the garages, and the spectators could see the mechanics make last-minute tweaks while the drivers were participating in their final briefing of the season.

Things started to move just over half an hour before the start, as the cars were brought out to form the grid. The Iwatobi supporters had the best view of the first half of the X2 field, but they could make out the car they wanted to follow just ahead of the class pole-sitting Alpine, and last in its own category. Once the drivers were present on the main straight, there was more incentive to have a closer look at the number 17, and, as the seats were filling up, although not to capacity, the group decided it was best they took turns in order to not lose their spot. So, half a dozen at a time, they shuffled left for a few minutes to take pictures of the Iwatobi Racing Team's preparations and maybe get the boys' attention. That proved difficult though; they had become very concentrated.

 

“Naruto Uzumaki, the last time we had a dry-to-wet race, you emerged the winner, so I'm sure you have an interesting answer for us: what's the plan? Is it make hay while the sun shines, or wait it out to use your strengths in the wet?”

“ _It's probably both! There's a high chance of a Safety Car in the second half of the race, and to use_ _it_ _, you have to be on the lead lap, so that's the fight that's going to be on in the first half. Not so much pure track position and pace, but stay on the lead lap, that's going to be the key. After that, the wet_ _is a leveller, and_ _anything can happen._ ”

 

During her time nearer to the car, Chigusa noticed that Nagisa was listening to music on his phone, his head bobbing quickly to the rhythm. She took a chance and sent a message out on social media, asking what the song was. Nagisa's sisters were with her, and they influenced the text slightly...

 **@HanaChigusa – 22/11/2015 10:43:** Hey @IwatobiRC, what's Nagisa listening to on the grid? Is it Ho-Kago? ;) _Ganbatte_ , boys, we're behind you all the way!

She sent it out, and a moment later, Nagisa took his phone out of his pocket.

“He's going to see it!”, she said enthusiastically. The driver then took a quick look towards where the Supporters Club was, and a glance over his shoulder where his sisters and Chigusa were standing. They saw a smile on his face, before he turned back and started tapping on his phone.

“He's answering!”, Chigusa presumed, and everyone with her waited eagerly, keeping an eye on her Internet window.

 **@IwatobiRC – 22/11/2015 10:45:** @HanaChigusa Sprint! by Ugly Duckling! Am psyched up to kick some butt as Rei-chan would say! #HeadDown :D Enjoy the #AnimeRace! Nagisa ;)

The reply made Chigusa grin excitedly, but that was cut short by a solemn piece of pre-race protocol. As had been the case the year before, when a driver who had been badly injured at the circuit (and had since passed away) had been honoured, the drivers and mechanics were called to attention, and the crowd asked to stand silently while the _Marseillaise_ was played for the victims of the recent terror attacks in France. It was traditional, however, for the local anthem to be played, and _Kimigayo_ followed immediately afterwards.

In between the French and Japanese flags at the head of the grid, the 5-minute board was shown, meaning that there were five minutes to go before the start of the parade lap; time for teams to perform their good luck rituals. Chigusa and Nagisa's sisters stayed next to the Chrysler and recorded the huddle, before Nagisa donned his nearly all-white helmet and was strapped into the car by Makoto. Starting at the back, Iwatobi was not expected to be force in the race. The big screens were showing the favourites: Team Kanto, the Spirou Peugeot and the TLM-winning Team7 McLaren. Double-D Racing were aiming for at least a podium in their final event with Maserati, and the 2014 Suzuka winners, Peter Perfect and his silver Veritas roadster, lined up in sixth.

The rest of the supporters' group saw Team Rocket's theatricals. This would be the famous squad's last race in the X2 category with the Alfa Romeo, so they were hoping to go out with a win, although the opposition would be stiff; Alpine and Kia had been their fierce rivals throughout the year, Ford had improved with I.M. Weasel's input, and no-one was counting out the Volvos in the long run either since their double triumph at Le Mans.

 

With two minutes to go, the mechanics put the starting tyres on the cars.

With one minute to go, the engines were fired up and the grid evacuated.

As the thirty-three cars got moving, other fan clubs turned up the volume and waved their flags. Among the loudest was Samezuka's contingent – in the same way former captains would go to regional or national tournaments to cheer their old high school on, the school's swim club was out in force to cheer on their former captains, Seijuro, Rin and Ai.

Warm-up procedure at Suzuka was peculiar. Normally, there would be just one formation lap in which drivers had to get heat into their tyres, and line up two by two at the end of it to take the start. In Japan, this was preceded by a parade lap led by local police vehicles. It reminded Kisumi that, in elementary school, Rin and Sosuke would have happily seen themselves grow up to become policemen. He smiled at the thought of them being on the motorcycles, rather than sharing one of the competing cars...

“Alright, people!”, Goro shouted as the formation lap was under way. “When the field comes back round for the start, I want you to cheer Nagisa-kun so loud that the crew opposite us will hear us on top of the cars and even with their headphones on! Let's do this!” The children and the girls were up for it, but Nagisa's parents, especially the mother, were nervous. The fear of their son being in an accident in the first corner, whether there was injury or just the disappointment of having the race end so soon, was preoccupying.

The circuit announcer raised his voice as the pack came up to the final chicane, which it cut by using the through-road on the outside, which made maintaining the grid formation easier. The leading cars rolled past the Iwatobi zone at moderate speed, then the light on the gantry turned green. A scream from the Mazda was the sign that the race had well and truly started, and the families looked out for the number 17 blue and white car at the back.

“He's going in between the cars on the back row!”, Rei's father noticed, while, as promised, the siblings and Goro were busy yelling. They turned their attention to the screens, Nagisa's mother praying for no contact, but they couldn't see where Nagisa was – the cameras were focusing on the battle at the front, where Spirou's KERS boost hadn't allowed him to get a run on polesitter Ash Ketchum, and the surprise package of the weekend, the Team Titans Lamborghini, held its third place for the time being. The separate X2 start was then shown, but, to some extent, the families didn't care. It had become clear that all the cars had made it through the first sector safety, but had Nagisa gained any places as it seemed he may have? They just had to wait.

Around a minute later, the lead cars could be heard downshifting for the chicane, and it was a single file that passed the grandstands at the end of lap 1. Ketchum and Spirou had opened up a gap over the third-placed Lambo, which was defending against the McLaren and the Veritas. The Mazda was roughly where it had started, but Nagisa was no longer last, and by some distance! Rei's father was good at picking up information, and he counted the cars that Nagisa had passed – which wasn't difficult because he only had to count the cars that were behind Nagisa.

“One... Two, three... Four... Four?!”, he counted. He looked at the Hazukis in disbelief. “He's gained **FOUR** places in one lap!” The shock turned to contagious smiles, and Goro noted on the live timing app that he'd taken another position on lap two. As a result, everyone was shouting “go, go, go Nagisa!” when he drove by again. “Iwatobi for the win” was also chanted. It was a strange experience though. These people were used to cheering on swimmers, athletes who were always in their line of sight and who could technically hear them all the time if they listened out for them (which they didn't, since they concentrated on their performance). Here, the crowd only directly saw the cars as they went by, for a handful of seconds per lap, their cries struggled to overtake the engines in terms of volume, and the crew on pit wall were wearing headphones, so they couldn't really hear either. However, someone in the garage could hear them...

 **@IwatobiRC – 22/11/2015 11:12:** [picture of the team's pit board saying “L7, P15”] Nagisa is nearly with the guys we usually fight! Mega start and mega atmos from the supporters, we're loving this! #AnimeRace Makoto

Up front, Ash Ketchum and Spirou had checked out. The Peugeot had attempted a pass at the start, but had since left the VW alone. It was speculated that the pair were on soft tyres in order to set an intimidating and demoralising pace, with the long-term aim to knock as many cars off the lead lap in the opening as possible. But using the less durable softs meant an extra tyre change costing approximately 20 seconds, which was why challenging teams started on medium compounds. However, Raven's Team Titans Lamborghini, which had produced its best-ever qualifying performance, was holding them up. For Naruto Uzumaki and Peter Perfect, passing the Lambo was becoming urgent, as the leading duo were heading for a lead big enough to compensate for the change of tyres.

A variably dense queue had formed behind Raven, stretching from third, the position she held, all the way back to fourteenth, and Nagisa, having swiftly disposed of the slowest cars and novice drivers, was catching up to it at an alarming rate. But, as Makoto had observed, Nagisa had basically put the car vaguely where it should be in the running order, and he could anticipate tougher resistance from teams that were expecting to be racing Iwatobi for the result. And the first target for him was the infamous number 21 Shelby.

 

As the field dragged out further in both classes, in particular as some cars made it past the number 5 Lamborghini, the cameras started to show what was happening in the midfield. Nagisa was getting clearly better traction out of corners, which meant that his tyres were working better than those on most of the cars around him – in short, he was on softs. His rivals didn't give him easy passage even if they were at a disadvantage; on the contrary, the more he was held up, the lower he'd end up after changing tyres at the first pit stop. His rise continued though, and the screens showed the spectators in the grandstands and his team in the pits replays of his daring passes. A switch-back into Degner here, round the outside at turn one while his adversary got held up by a backmarker there...

“He says he takes more risks in the racecar than on the motorbike”, Nagisa's mum told Makoto's parents with a worried tone. “Seeing this, I'm not sure I want to know how he rides!” She initially hadn't approved of her son owning a bike, but she conceded that it was a practical means to get around. She just made sure that he got a small displacement (no bigger than 125cc), and bought some of the safety kit for his 18th birthday.

After forty minutes of racing, the climb looked set to stumble on Rin. Goro grinned. The children jumped and cheered Nagisa on louder. Kisumi anxiously didn't know who to root for. But it wasn't to be. The Mazda lunged into the pits at the very moment the Chrysler had caught it.

“Aw, you're not scared, are you, Rin?”, Goro teased.

“No, but maybe he doesn't want to fight on uneven terms”, Kisumi suggested.

“He had gained some places”, Rei's father noted. “Maybe they short-fuelled this first stint.” Those three had watched races together before and enjoyed debating about strategies. As the pits weren't busy for Samezuka's very early call, the stop was broadcast. Fuel and driver change: Sosuke was taking over from Rin.

The next lap, Nagisa pitted. He stayed on board, but, as expected, the tyres were changed, so he effectively came back out behind some of the drivers he'd passed. So he went after them again, with the same disconcerting ease. In between two overtakes, his lap times were comparable to what the leaders had done in their first stint.

“ _But with Nagisa-kun starting, there should be lots of overtaking early on!_ ”

Rei's father remembered those words from the day before and made the connection.

“Oh Rei, you crafty old fox!”, he exclaimed. “He saved all the softs for the race!”

There was a limit on how many of the grippiest tyres were allowed on a weekend to encourage teams to use less overall, and usually, one set of softs was reserved for qualifying, sometimes two if a team wanted to give two drivers a chance to qualify the car. But Rei had ordered not to use any on the Saturday because his team's grid position was already decided. Instead, he kept them in reserve for Nagisa's incisive start.

 

Of course, it was going to be impossible to cheer consistently for the whole race, even for Goro. Nonetheless, the excitement picked up after another half-hour or so, when everyone realised that the Chrysler was closing in on the Mazda again. Samezuka's fan zone also cranked up the volume, inducing something of a yelling competition when the two cars came on to the home straight.

The pit window was still some time away, so Sosuke wasn't going to be able to duck out of the confrontation. What's more, both cars would change tyres at the next pit stop, so anticipating the stop would simply be allowing Nagisa to go faster, on a clearer track, with light fuel and soft tyres. Samezuka were sure to lose the position if Sosuke stopped first; they might keep it if he held on. The big screens showed Sosuke practicing some deeper braking lines while Nagisa gained the last half-second he needed to engage the battle.

Sosuke versus Nagisa. It was a match between two hard fighters that had twice ended with one of them in the wall. For some in the grandstands, the duel was a more worrying prospect than an exciting one. Nagisa's mother looked very nervous, his father and sisters had become quieter. Makoto's mother empathised and stood with them as the first peeks at the inside line came from the attacker.

On the main straight, Sosuke moved to the middle of the road and slightly beyond to cover the inside of turn one, forcing Nagisa to take the outside line. The Mazda's main strength was still corner speed, so Nagisa shouldn't be able to beat Sosuke round the outside. However, the Chrysler's advantage under acceleration was reinforced by the softer rubber.

“He looks in a hurry to get this done”, Kisumi remarked.

“One thing's certain: it isn't Rei who's pressing him”, Mr Ryugazaki replied. On pit wall, Rei looked thoughtful and anxious. His unease when Nagisa was in the car had improved, but facing Sosuke was something he was concerned about, given the history. It was Gou who was doing the talking, and even she might be asking for more patience from Nagisa.

The duel returned to the screens just as Sosuke approached a couple of X2 cars. He got ahead of both of them on the run up to 130R, but it looked like Nagisa had only managed one. Not wanting to lose contact with Sosuke, he went around the outside of the second backmarker. It was a carbon copy of what Haru had done on the Friday, only without disastrous consequences. The extra grip from the well-heated tyres and the well-rubbered track stopped him from straying onto the grass. And if that hadn't made his parents bite their nails enough, he held an inside line into the chicane, which Sosuke decided to cover at the last second, cutting across while Nagisa darted to the left. It looked like a dangerous blocking move by Sosuke that Nagisa had reacted to just in time. By now, Mrs Hazuki couldn't watch anymore. She was convinced this would end in tears.

Immediately afterwards, on the home straight, Sosuke repeated his move to the right-hand side of the road. Only this time, Nagisa didn't take the outside line, but the inside one. He didn't want the benefit of his better traction and the slipstream to go to waste, and he drove almost right up to the pit wall and squeezed through the slim gap to pull alongside the Mazda! Both were on the less grippy, dirty side of the track, and the whole audience held its breath as the two cars fast approached the quick first corner side-by-side, centimetres apart. The centimetres became millimetres when Nagisa drifted left.

“They're going to bump!”, shouted Ren. Nagisa wanted a wider entry into the first corner and was wrestling Sosuke for it. The Mazda driver yielded, the Chrysler held its line and completed the pass, prompting a massive cheer of joy from the Iwatobi supporters. Nagisa's mother hadn't seen the move, but, having heard the “oohs”, the “aahs” and the “holy craps”, she was overcome with emotion. Her husband cuddled her while laughing, with considerable relief himself.

“He's nuts”, she sniffled. “He's amazing... but still totally nuts!”, she added when she saw the replay. The onboard shot from the Mazda gave Sosuke's perspective: he left enough room for Nagisa to get alongside to his right, but he probably didn't expect Nagisa to use it, as it would make the line for the upcoming corner too tight. But the Chrysler had such a good run on him after his defensive move at the chicane that it had pulled alongside and got slightly ahead by the time they reached pit exit, and Nagisa was in a position to dictate the trajectory. Being a nose behind, Sosuke recognised that the situation was too dangerous, that there was no way he could reclaim the position straight away, and that there was still more than three quarters of the race to go – he surrendered to more forceful than him. For the time being.

A quarter of an hour after the pass, an accident between the Hairpin and Spoon Curve eliminated the TLM class-winning Team Flintstone Volvo and the Digimon Cadillac, just a couple of seconds ahead of Nagisa who managed to navigate through the debris. The Iwatobi Chrysler had been catching up to Matt Ishida, and this had pressured the latter into making a big mistake. The Safety Car was deployed, which was a blow to the front-running teams that had been hoping to lap lots of cars, because it bunched everyone up right behind them again, and it prompted early pit stops for everyone. The Iwatobi fans saw their first competitive driver change, as Haru got in. The tyres were changed again, and the new set couldn't be of the soft sort, so the next stint probably wasn't going to be as spectacular as the first two by Nagisa. In between the excitement of the overtakes and the bad weather which was on its way, promised by the breeze which was getting more and more unpleasant, this was a good time for the Iwatobi Supporters Club to take a breather and get their bento boxes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The parade lap with the police is a genuine thing in Japanese race culture (video [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/144863076571/faster-25-is-about-to-go-up-and-the-start-of-the)), like the on-track bus tours from last year.  
> Nagisa's pass on Sosuke looks a lot like Esteban Ocon's pass on Antonio Fuoco in GP3 at Sochi in 2014, posted on the blog [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/146220238261/the-video-of-antonio-fuoco-versus-esteban-ocon-in).  
> How high will Iwatobi and Samezuka go?


	26. Enter the Rain

“Drops on the windscreen, Rei.”

“Are you certain?”

“I think I know water when I see it.”

“Haha, copy that, Haru. One more lap then.”

 

That was the call for Makoto to get ready. He removed the second headset and passed it back to the crew chief. Rei grabbed Makoto's arm as he got down from his stool, gave him a smile and wished him good luck. He smiled back, but he felt nervous. Subconsciously, he knew that his stint might not be as good as the ones by Nagisa or Haru. Their drives in the first three hours had set a high standard: from the back of the grid, they had allowed the Iwatobi car to climb up to the back of the top ten, safely on the lead lap, and, in particular, they had stayed ahead of Samezuka. But Ai had been driving for that team for the last hour and a half, and he was slower than Haru. Somehow, Makoto sensed that he would have to deal with the Mazda at one point, with a considerably stronger racer behind the wheel.

Gou followed him to the garage, sensing some tension on Makoto's face. Once the green, orange and black helmet was on her driver's head, she called and looked straight into his green, wary eyes.

“Be safe, this is a tricky stint”, she said. “But most importantly, enjoy yourself.” The words were similar to those she had used a year earlier when Rei was about to make his race début. Makoto just sighed and nodded slowly, then walked away, receiving an encouraging pat on the back from Nagisa on the way. He was joined on the pit apron by the mechanics who would refuel the car and change tyres. The new set was not slick. Rei had chosen Makoto to handle the transition from dry to wet, and he was taking a gamble on how hard the rain would fall over the next hour or so, knowing that it would soon be raining properly. At that moment, though a light drizzle could be felt at some points of the circuit, it wasn't enough to make the track slippery.

Haru stopped the car and got out, taking his seat adapter with him and dropping it near the left-rear wheel. Makoto slid into the cockpit and assumed a normal driving pose for Haru to fasten and tighten the safety harness. When he was done, it was usual to tap the driver's chest, which Haru did, and Makoto returned a quick look and a thumbs-up. The door shut with still a few seconds of refuelling to spare. The car then lifted under the action of the hydraulic jacks, and the two members of the pit crew in charge of changing the tyres got to work.

“Absolutely no wheelspin, Makoto, and don't lock up under braking”, Rei warned. “The tyres will be fragile while the track is still dry, don't overheat them.” The driver turned a couple of dials on the console and radioed back.

“T/C and ABS set.”

“Copy. Last wheel going on now.”

Makoto put his finger on the ignition button, ready to press it when the stop was finished and the lollipop man lifted his sign. With a thud, the car dropped, the signal was given, and right on cue, the Chrysler fired up and crept away.

Initially, Makoto was nursing his way around the circuit on cold tyres with less grip. The rain gradually intensified, and a wetter line soon became available for him at some points of the track. Then, a few laps after the start of his stint, a heavy shower hit the East loop, causing chaos for cars on slick tyres. But the radar screens were showing it to be a brief episode of rain, so most teams were betting on being able to weather it and switch to wets when the bulk of the system arrived. Samezuka decided against it though: Nitori stopped and handed over to Rin, who set off on intermediates.

With so few teams willing to change their strategy, Makoto found himself much quicker than the others. He was very surprised.

“I can't believe I'm passing these guys so easily!”, he said.

“Pick them off carefully, Makoto, they're all on slicks”, Jeremy replied.

 

-While Daphne Blake gets her Ford pointing the right way again, we see the Iwatobi Chrysler, absolutely carving through the traffic! It's like it's in another class!

-That car made a stop not long ago, we noted it was out of sequence, so they must have put cut tyres on, because that sort of speed difference... The driver is... Makoto Tachibana, he's definitely not on the same tyres as everyone else.

-He easily ducks underneath the Citroën there, and that's the number 61 Alpine! Spinning under acceleration out of the Hairpin, and that's stopped with its front end on the grass and its back end on the track, not far from the racing line... Safety Car is being deployed!

[Race Director interrupts: “Safety Car deployed, Safety Car deployed, to allow teams to adapt to track conditions, there are too many spinners. All cars must switch to wet weather tyres immediately. Repeat, all cars pit and switch to wet tyres now, please!”]

-Wow, Race Control being bossy there! In essence, we've had enough of people going off-track because they're on slicks, so, everyone, get on wets. Paul, that's most unusual!

-It is, in that the reason given for this Safety Car is not “the weather”, the rain's not particularly heavy.

-It is on the Western loop, Paul, that's where all these spins are happening.

-Yes, but all these spinners are on slicks, and the Race Director has said, and this is what's unusual, that he wants those slick tyres _off_ , and by bringing out the Safety Car, he's giving the teams a window in which to make the change without losing undue time.

[Race Director interrupts: “clarification: all cars on slick tyres must change now to non-slick tyres, either intermediates or full wets.”]

-Ah, I fixated on the fact that he said “wets” in the first message, but the teams are allowed inters too; that makes sense. Bruce, in pit lane, where are you? What can you see?

-Wet tyres! Wet tyres everywhere! It's a panic in some garages who were not expecting this “no slick” order, and it's thrown quite a few strategies out the window, I can tell you. Here at Volkswagen Kanto, Professor Oak was just stunned, he was having a word with his team's official, telling him “it's the idiots on hards, let us stick to our plan”, but it's no use, the cars are in and obeying Race Control's orders – they can't afford to wait and see if they can protest it, they'll just lose more places if they stop out of sync.

 

Makoto slowed to a moderate pace out of the Hairpin after getting the call from Rei that overtaking wasn't allowed anymore. Even when slowing down, drivers on slick tyres were finding it difficult to stay in control of their vehicles, and one car, a Shelby, slid off in front of him at Spoon Curve.

When he arrived on the home straight, the road was deserted.

“Where is everyone?”, he asked.

“They're in the pits”, Rei answered. “Race Control has ordered everyone to get their slicks off. We are on inters and not affected.”

“Ok...”, Makoto replied, sounding thoughtful. “Um, Rei... I've got the Safety Car in front of me now. Is that correct?” Rei didn't get what Makoto was concerned about.

“Well yeah, you are supposed to catch up to the Safety Car.”

“I mean I'm the _first_ car behind it. That should be the leader, right?”

Makoto heard some discussion between Rei and Jeremy in the background. “We'll get a wave-around if we need one.” “Were we a lap down?” “Just tell him to stay put, if he's not getting an order, he stays put.”

“Makoto”, Rei said more intently, “stay where you are unless the SC gives you the green light to pass it.”

“Ok... This feels weird though.”

“We'll check the timing when the train catches up.”

Makoto sighed loudly. A glance in his mirrors showed him who he might be fighting with at the restart. It looked like the Mazda.

“Oh man... Rei, who's behind me?”, he asked.

“Hang on, we're checking the timing screens, something's up.”

Makoto pouted again, and weaved a little as he drove up to Spoon Curve. He was expecting a go-around any moment now.

“Um, Makoto?”, Rei called, with a shaky, excited voice.

“Yeah?”, the driver replied wearily. He could hear Gou and Nagisa (he thought) cheering and laughing behind the tactician's back.

“Timing says you _are_ the leader, so you're in the right place!”

Makoto's mind froze. Thankfully, enough of it stayed alert to keep him on course, but the news was a shocker.

“I'm... _first_? That's not possible!”

“We were on the lead lap, and everyone ahead stopped”, Rei explained. “They got a red light at the end of pit lane to let the Safety Car train through, and that was you and Rin.”

Makoto gulped audibly and took a longer look in the mirror when he reached a straight long enough to do so.

“Rin...”

He could imagine prying red eyes stalking him from behind the shiny windscreen of the black prototype he could just about make out in the mist being kicked up by his car's rear wheels.

“Race Control says we're going back to green next lap”, Rei informed. “Not this lap, the one after”, he clarified, realising he had spoken a bit quickly with over-excitement.

“Understood”, Makoto answered with a hint of anxiety. To his surprise, the next voice he heard was Haru's.

“Makoto, you look ahead at the restart. Not behind.”

As ever, Haru had sensed Makoto's feelings. In turn, Makoto received the rest of Haru's words in his mind.

“ _You mustn't fear Rin. Whether he tries to pass you or not, you run your race._ _Go for it!_ ”

 

-I've looked up the history between Matsuoka and Tachibana, and I think this restart is going to be interesting. Last year, Matsuoka overtook Tachibana in the wet at Donington, but at the next race, which was here, Tachibana's racecraft had improved nicely. He's quite overlooked, is Tachibana, but his speed in the wet is really worth mentioning, since he was in the same second as Haru Nanase in the wet warm-up at Le Mans where the Iwatobi Chrysler placed third; their best position this year until they took the lead here. Matsuoka, meanwhile, is down on wet racing experience this year because the Mazda was eliminated very early on in the race at Spa. Let's not forget the X2 fight for the lead, that five-way scrap will continue to thrill us without doubt, but I guess the TV director will want to focus on this fight between two young and upcoming local racers.

-Into the chicane we go, about to go green, and the drivers are now going to see what the track's like at speed. Makoto Tachibana leads Rin Matsuoka over the line, Chrysler leads Mazda at Suzuka, and the pair nail the restart! The spray isn't too bad, perhaps Matsuoka is going to have a look at turn one and challenge for the lead... No, he stays put. So it's Tachibana for the Iwatobi Racing Team, the first time he's ever been in the lead of a race, who heads the field through the esses, and what he's going to have to look out for, with the clear view ahead of him, is standing water. Onboard with Matsuoka, you see the correction he made there on the steering wheel, it's obviously slippery.

-Now, what we know is that the Iwatobi Chrysler is on inters just by looking at their pace before the Safety Car. The Mazda is _probably_ on inters, but what about everyone else? This is fascinating, just like the first race at Spa! Which tyres will perform the best and for how long? Somebody's gamble isn't going to pay off.

-The first hour at Spa was really intriguing, wasn't it? Obviously no-one's said anything, but the lap times will give away the strategies. A quick note, while we watch Tachibana and Matsuoka checking out – a clue that the Mazda is on inters and their pursuers on full wets –, in X2, third place has changed hands, the Kias have swapped places. Again, same question in our second class here this weekend: who's on which tyres, and has Kia gone for a split strategy?

 

It was surreal enough for Makoto that he was leading, let alone that he and Rin were getting away from more seasoned drivers in difficult conditions.

“I'm not doing anything special”, he told Rei on the radio after being given the gap back to third.

“You're on the right tyres, the others are likely on full wets”, the race engineer answered.

“Fair enough”, Makoto thought. Next, he wondered why the Mazda was happily following him around. Knowing Rin, he had expected him to be impatient and eager to lead the race himself.

“Your pace is great, keep it up”, was Jeremy's reply when asked why the Chrysler wasn't being attacked. It didn't really answer the question, and Makoto let him know.

“Seriously, am I _really_ faster than Rin?”

“We have other concerns right now”, the crew chief admitted. “Rei's just been summoned to see the stewards, I'm not sure why. Just keep going.”

Inevitably, that caught some of Makoto's attention. A summoning to Race Direction usually meant an investigation for some form of infringement, and a penalty might be issued. He tried to push a bit harder, though he still wasn't able to edge clear of Rin. Soon, Rei returned to pit wall and confirmed that there might be a problem.

“There's a question about the start of the Safety Car period”, he said. “Their GPS tracker indicated an illegal overtake at Turn 14.”

“What?! I slowed!”, Makoto interrupted in protest, fearing that a penalty had already been decided. “I slowed right down as soon as you said Safety Car!”

“I believe you, Makoto, but please stay calm”, Rei ordered. “They're talking to the other team as well.”

“I had a car go off in front of me, but it can't be that”, Makoto recalled.

“Stay calm”, Rei repeated. “You're doing a great job, keep driving like you are now.”

“Oh man, I've messed us up again”, Makoto whined, before being sternly reminded to concentrate. But that proved tricky. What was it he had forgotten? Had he missed a yellow flag before Rei called him to say the Safety Car was out? The sense of guilt was making the lap he was on feel very long. He even wondered if he was slowing down, and from that he mustered up some focus to hold off Rin, though his adversary didn't seem to be putting more pressure on him.

Then, the news came through.

“You're cleared, Makoto! It was the car that went off in front of you. You're driving perfectly, keep it up!”

Makoto's spirits lifted considerably. In the conditions, the intermediate tyres were performing at their best, so Makoto and Rin continued to dominate, as the cars on full wet tyres were being soundly beaten.

 

-Kakashi Hatake, team boss at Team7 McLaren, your car's in the group being dropped by the leaders. Wrong tyre choice?

- _You have to understand that we were forced to make a rushed tyre choice by Race Control. I'm not happy with the “no slicks” call they issued, because it blew what we wanted to do. You see, right now, slicks would be ok, probably better than full wets, but absurdly, we're not allowed to use them, and_ _it's clear to us that_ _intermediates w_ _on't_ _be_ _good_ _for long enough, so we went for the wets._ _A_ _t_ _the moment_ _, it's_ _hard for us_ _, but_ _w_ _e'll see in a couple of hours; with hindsight, we'll know if it was a wrong choice._

-Yeah, the silver lining is there's still over half the race to go. What's the fight-back plan?

- _Well, for now, it looks like the heavy rain is nearly here, so the guys on inters are going to change to full wets while we continue and get stronger on our tyres. Iwatobi and Mazda were quite clever, they anticipated their stops and got lucky with Race Control's order, but they're leading on borrowed time in my opinion._

-Thank you, Kakashi Hatake. Good luck for the second half of the race.

 

The reason teams had elected to switch to full wets became apparent twenty minutes after the return to green flag racing: the thick of the weather system arrived, and with it, much heavier showers. The spray being kicked up by the cars was becoming more dense, and visibility dropped, even with the windscreen wipers going at full speed. For a time, grip levels remained reasonable for drivers on intermediate tyres, but, like the teams on slicks had half an hour earlier, they were about to struggle with handling.

Rin was the first to blink: he stopped five minutes before the mid-way point of the race, and changed to full wets. Other teams on the same strategy, and who were some way behind the leader due to having to overtake slower cars earlier, pulled in a lap or two later. But Makoto was told to stay out, despite the tide clearly getting too high for his intermediates.

“You have seven laps left in the tank”, said Rei as the clock struck three. “I'd like you to go as far as you can like this, it doesn't matter if you lose time. There's something I want to try.”


	27. Stroke of Tactical Genius!

The next laps became more and more hellish for Makoto. He had to charter the puddles, some of which would grow from one lap to the next, all while navigating through some X2 traffic. Soon though, he found himself not much faster than the competitors in the slower category. His advantage had melted, but Rei urged him to stay strong and stay out.

“We could gain in the long run”, he said. “Four more laps!”

“FOUR?!”, Makoto shouted. “At this rate, I'll crash and we'll lose it all! I want to pit now!”

Rei told Makoto to hold, while Jeremy argued with him that it was a matter of safety to bring Makoto in and put him on wets. But Rei was being stubborn. He made a quick calculation and suggested a compromise.

“Two laps”, he said. “We can do it with two laps. Box next lap; not this one, the one after.”

“I've lost the lead. Is it worth it, Rei?”, Makoto asked.

“You're 4-5 seconds a lap slower. At this rate, we can be competitive if you stay out for those two laps. Come on, you're doing great!”

By the time Makoto received that last answer, he was rounding Spoon Curve, so two laps to go felt more like just one.

“Alright, Rei. Box lap after this one”, he accepted.

 

After the stop, Makoto rejoined the race some distance behind Rin, who had changed to wets earlier and had therefore been comprehensively quicker than the inter-shod Chrysler on the final third of the stint. Still, Makoto felt a difference in handling with his new set of wet tyres. He was more confident, but there was something else he had to manage now.

“Ok, this is going to be a fuel economy stint, Makoto”, said Rei. “Keep engine map C.”

“Like I would dare use more revs in these conditions anyway!”, Makoto thought. The weather, in particular the wind, was getting worse. Without reaching storm or typhoon levels, it was gusting while the rain poured down more heavily. Seeing drivers take corners ever more gingerly, Race Control decided to reduce the risk of drama and scrambled the Safety Car to give everyone a breather. It was exactly an hour after the previous pause, so most teams were ripe to make a pit stop. In fact, many had consciously decided to save fuel and delay it, betting on a full course caution coming out. A few hadn't managed to do it though, sensing that their wet tyres had degraded too much in the first half of the stint. This bought them track position as they leapfrogged those who did stop. But the leading pair was once again Rin and Makoto, in that order, as Iwatobi had just stopped, and Samezuka declined to do so. Makoto wondered if he'd have the nerve to attack Rin when the green flag flew again.

“I wouldn't expect to because he's on lighter fuel”, Rei replied. “I'm a little surprised he hasn't stopped to be honest, but it doesn't matter. Our priority is to watch our own fuel consumption. In any case, this SC is good for us.”

And so began a very tedious phase of the race for Makoto: driving slowly behind the Safety Car, not knowing when the race would resume, he could almost feel the cold of the rain. Was his family still at the track? The view from his car was too murky and he couldn't turn his head enough to get a clear view of the grandstands, but in a way, he hoped that his parents and siblings had left; surely spectating wasn't enjoyable in these conditions.

 

-It has to be said, the Japanese fans are great. This is no “grand day out” weather, yet they're sticking around. It reminds me of the World Endurance Championship round at Fuji in 2013: a total wash-out, we had a dozen laps, all behind the Safety Car before the race was cancelled, but the fans stayed and were rewarded with an open pit lane. We're not in that kind of situation just yet, calling this race off isn't on the cards, but still, I wouldn't want to be Bruce right now! How wet are you down in pit lane, Bruce?

-Haha, joke's on you, actually! I'm indoors, inside the Volkswagen Kanto garage, and in fine company! Who do you want to hear from first: Misty or Dawn?

-You may be dry, but it's still chilly, I bet! Go ahead, Bruce.

-I've no idea what you're talking about. Well, maybe Dawn then... or not... Er, actually, we're being shuffled back outside... I'm going to have find another refuge by the looks of things, because there's a bit of a scramble down here, they want the garage cleared...

-Nono, you can't leave the VW pit if they're about to bring a car in!

-That's odd, because both cars stopped when the Safety Car came out... One of the cars may have picked up a problem if they're urgently clearing the garage, but there's no slow car on track...

-Let's find out. The queue is coming out of the chicane... And it's the 8! The number 8 breaks rank and peels off! One of the race favourites has a mechanical issue! Brock brings the number 8 onto pit road, and Bruce is telling us that the dolly jacks are out, the car's going to go straight into the garage! Drama behind the Safety Car here at Suzuka, the number 8 Volkswagen was fifth and the second of the cars that had stopped under yellow, and now it's in the pits again, and going straight inside! Quickly, the mechanics get to work, but what a pity! We were mentioning that the number 8 was really on a roll in this second half of the season, only for the commentator's curse to strike again, just like with the number 5 Lamborghini.

 

The news of the lead Kanto car's demise had no effect on Makoto. The yellow and white machine had been running three places behind him, and he hadn't even seen it in his mirrors.

The Safety Car period dragged on, and Makoto approached an hour and a half of driving time. The lull in the action was weighing on him, and he thought of the upcoming challenge to keep him alert. He was very much between a rock and a hard place. Ahead, Rin was a tough, confident competitor who had challenged for podiums in the Americas. The shark could now smell the blood of victory on the watery circuit, and it might be beyond Makoto's strength to yank the lead from its jaws. Behind him was Sakura Haruno, someone he felt was more than capable of keeping up with him in any circumstance and who would definitely want to add a home win to the breakthrough Le Mans victory. Meanwhile, Rei's calls to keep an eye on the fuel gauge meant that Makoto couldn't exaggerate his ambitions. He was also asked to report on how slippery the surface was and how visibility evolved, in particular taking into account spray from the car ahead, so that Race Control could make a decision on when to restart the race that would be approved of by the drivers.

Then, something unexpected happened to Rin, and Makoto had to think fast to avoid the costly mistake of following him off-course...

 

-I'm afraid I have to interrupt you, Matt, because we have a development in the pit lane: the leader, the number 22 Mazda is in, and Paul, this has got to be a mechanical problem like on the number 8, this can't be a scheduled stop.

-It's certainly not scheduled, although with the disruptions and rain, it's hard to tell what the schedule should be... But sure, Matsuoka last stopped on lap 111, we're now on lap 131, so they have more than enough fuel. Still, the crew tops the tank up, that's standard procedure before wheeling the car into the garage, although... I can't see any...

-NO! Rin's straight back out! It's a splash! A fuel-only stop for Matsuoka, from the lead and in the middle of the Safety Car period! Why didn't he come in immediately after the Safety Car was deployed? Incredible! Paul, this is surely a massive blunder from Mazda!

-Well, they had stopped on lap 111, which was 13 laps before the Safety Car came out, so it wasn't frankly worth it back then. My guess is that Mazda have somehow felt caught out by the length of the Safety Car period. It could be that they were banking on it being rather short, only it's taking so much longer that it's preferable to do the stop under yellow and tag on to the back of the field, rather than do it under green and not be able to make up the time as they are now, catching up to the back of the Safety Car train.

-Another extraordinary twist here in the middle of the fifth hour of the 8 we have planned here at Suzuka this afternoon: the leader, Rin Matsuoka, has pitted under yellow, for fuel only. This means Makoto Tachibana, for the Iwatobi Racing Team, the privateer number 17 Chrysler, is back in the lead of this race, ahead of Sakura Haruno in the TLM-winning number 7 McLaren. Both of these cars stopped before the Safety Car, so they will likely pit again before the cars behind them. In third right now is the number 9 Volkswagen with Gary Oak at the wheel, heading Pat Pending in the number 4 Veritas. The front-runners in X2 all stopped when the Safety Car came out, and it is the Team Rocket Alfa which leads, ahead of the two works Kias, 52 ahead of 53. We still have Matt Ishida, from the Digimon Cadillac team, with us in the booth, keep sending in some questions to us, at-AERS-underscore-Radio, we'll try to get through some of them before the restart.

-If I may just add to that before you ask a question again, Tachibana didn't anticipate his stop by much, he came in only three laps before the Safety Car, so he is roughly in sync the guys behind him who stopped when the yellow came out. What we need to look out for is when the McLaren will stop, because they stopped six laps before the Safety Car, on lap 118. That's not a huge gap, but they will set the tone as to when the next round of pit stops will take place. About the Mazda though, I've realised that they can probably get to the end now on just three stops, whereas if they had stopped when the Safety Car came out, they would have needed another four. On that front, I have little doubt that the Peugeot in sixth place can get to the end on three stops, since the Diesel hybrid has great fuel economy. Whether they actually do that or not will be dictated by if and when the Safety Car is deployed again. For the surviving Volkswagen, the McLaren and the Chrysler, however, it's hard to tell. They might need four; that said, this long Safety Car is really going to extend this stint. But my point is, Samezuka may have saved a pit stop here, which is not negligible and potentially quite inspired, even if it looked like a blunder. Time will tell.

 

Suddenly, Makoto was back in the lead. Questions from pit wall on behalf of Race Control became more about the track itself, standing water and driveability, rather than visibility. At the end of the lap, Rei asked Makoto to assess if the conditions were good enough to go racing again.

“I think I'll manage, if they want to restart”, he said.

“That's not the question, Makoto”, Gou stepped in. “We want to know if you think it's safe. Your opinion counts here.”

Makoto didn't know what to say. He didn't feel legitimate to weigh in on such an important decision, and he'd hate it if something happened to himself or another competitor because he had misjudged the situation.

“Pay attention on this lap and get back to us”, said Gou. So Makoto did, and concluded that he had held it together with intermediate tyres in comparable conditions earlier. Behind him, drivers were in agreement: the wind and rain had died down, it was safe enough to attempt a restart. The weather radars used by the tacticians confirmed that things had improved. Half-way around the lap he was on, Makoto received a message from Rei confirming that the Safety Car would pull in.

“Prepare for the restart, Makoto. Don't fret about bunching everyone up and getting a jump, the rule is no passing before the timing line.” After a pause, the competitive aspect took over. “I'll tell you how many laps you have to do when we know your pace. Keep engine map C for the moment, but I think you can push a bit and defend your place.”

The Safety Car had been in charge of the race for nearly half an hour, so Makoto felt somewhat relieved to be able to stretch his legs a bit when the green lights reappeared on the main gantry. He had the best view in the business at that specific moment: a clear track ahead. There was a gap in the clouds above, a little more sunlight broke through the grey cover overhead and made the tarmac glisten. Spray filled Makoto's mirrors though, and he took care that the lights he could see in them were those of the McLaren when approaching turn one. He braked conservatively, but so did everyone else, so he held the lead through the technical, twisty first section.

It wasn't long before the car behind became eager to lead. The Team7 entry was on a lighter fuel load, and Sakura Haruno wanted to take advantage of that. She was flashing her lights at Makoto, who didn't let the distraction get to him. He concentrated on taking the best lines through corners, which weren't as tight as in the dry. Sitting in the middle of the track a lot of the time, he felt that he might be blocking, which was a bad thing to do. Rei denied that he was doing anything wrong.

“Make sure you stick to one change of line on the straights and you'll be fine”, he said. “At your current pace, you have 18 laps to go, and you're ok for fuel. Go all out!”

With that, Makoto switched to a higher-revving engine map, while leaving traction control on its safest setting, and pressed on. His defence continued to frustrate Sakura for a while, until she tricked him into covering the inside line at the Hairpin, which he had to brake earlier for, and she switched back around the outside of the curve leading into Spoon, pulling alongside. She had cleverly chosen her moment, as she had the line to go around a backmarker, while Makoto was forced to lift.

“I had to let the 7 through”, the Iwatobi driver said on the radio.

“Yeah, we saw that”, Rei answered. “Bad luck, don't worry about it and press on. P3 is +4.8. Follow the 7 if you can. You're doing a super job.”

Sakura's spell in the lead was short-lived though. She pitted early, and at this point, it was clear that McLaren were going to need more pit stops than the other leading cars to get to the end. All eyes then turned back to the blue and white Chrysler. How much longer would Makoto drive for? Would Iwatobi need three more stops or four?

 

It was already known that Makoto was the best of the three boys when it came to endurance, and he was still going strong as he hit the two-hour mark. He was also a master at extending the car's range, although Rei was asking him to take the car further on one tank than ever before. The lengthy Safety Car period and the weather helped, but Makoto still had to get the most pace out of his delicate, frugal style. Having found a good rhythm, he was shining through as an excellent driver in the wet, leading convincingly and maintaining a cushion on his opponents while he weaved his way through the X2 traffic. On top of that, to Gou's amazement, he was giving Nagisa precise information on the state of the track, and tips to improve lap times. The younger racer stood out as the least keen when it came to driving in the rain, but he had to: he had forty minutes left on his minimum driving time of two hours and fifteen minutes, which was longer than in 2014 courtesy of the new “quarter race plus quarter hour” rule.

“Five to go”, said Rei. “It's looking tight, go back to map C and drop a few seconds, please.”

“Am I using too much fuel?”, Makoto asked.

“Not really, there's enough for an extra lap”, Rei answered. “I'm talking about the timing. You've gone a bit faster than I anticipated.”

The last comment surprised Makoto. He understood that he had gone quicker than what Rei thought he was capable of, when, in reality, Rei had extrapolated his lap times just after the restart, and the time he had gained was mostly due to good traffic management. Either way, Makoto was buoyed by the remark, and felt a little wasteful when lifting and coasting into some corners to shave off some speed. On the other hand, Rei's bold idea was going to work.

The rain had calmed down since the Safety Car period, but it was going to remain persistent for the rest of the race, and wet tyres would be obligatory all the way to the end. Makoto applied himself for what was his final lap of the race, and possibly the last of his motor racing career. He knew this, but he didn't let the fact dent his feelings. With a clear mind, he enjoyed taking the corners one more time.

Then, as he entered pit lane from the lead of the race and went to press the limiter button on the steering wheel, he got a flash. His car was treading through the standing water on the road like he would push through the water. The sight of his lollipop man was the signal to prepare to hand over – just like the wire above the pool. And who would be waiting to dive in after Makoto? Nagisa. The visions continued and flickered between Nagisa crouching on the starting block in his swimsuit, cap and goggles, and Nagisa standing in his race suit and helmet as Makoto approached the box.

“NAGISA!”, he shouted on instinct when he simultaneously brought the car to a halt and unfastened his harness, in the same way he did in medley relays when he touched the wall.

 

-Makoto Tachibana gets out of the car, what a tremendous job he's done to keep Iwatobi in the hunt, and what an extraordinary stint: 1 hour and 12 minutes on one tank!

-Unbelievable indeed, we haven't even seen that from the Peugeot. Let's follow the stop: Joe, down to you!

-No hitches so far in this pit stop, fuel going in, Tachibana installs Nagisa Hazuki in the car... door closes, fuel hose out, jacks up, and the tyre crew gets to work. Four new Michelin wets for this car, Tachibana going into the garage, I'll try to grab a word with him in a moment, but meanwhile, if you want to hear the sound of a Chrysler ME Four-Twelve firing up and roaring away... Here we go, last tyre on: [jacks down, engine starts and car pulls away] Off goes Hazuki!

-Let us know when you've latched onto Tachibana, Joe! Meanwhile, Hazuki crawls down pit lane, where is the second-placed car... I mean third-placed car actually, because Rin Matsuoka has stayed out in the Mazda and therefore leads the race... and Hazuki's out behind the McLaren.

-I still think the McLaren's going to need three more stops, while the guys behind have two to go. Team7 seem to be gambling on an aggressive stance to make up for the extra stop, but a well-timed Safety Car would help too. Back to the Iwatobi Chrysler, I noticed the driver time graphic popping up just as the car entered the pits, and Tachibana's stopwatch ticked over 2:15, which means that Makoto Tachibana has done his minimum driving time of 2 hours and 15 minutes in one go, and, and this is really remarkable, with just one intermediate pit stop! Another driver is going for her 2:15 in one go, and that's Sakura Haruno in second place, but she's already made two stops in her run. Still, to do two consecutive hours of driving in such treacherous and changing conditions is impressive. Which brings us back to Rin Matsuoka, because he was behind Tachibana when the rain came out...

-Yes, and then he was leading behind the Safety Car, only to stop in the middle of the full course yellow. Sorry, Paul, back to that in a moment: Joe has Makoto Tachibana.

-I have not seen a grin this wide on Makoto Tachibana's face in a while! Makoto, you look really satisfied with that stint. Tell us about it.

_-It was surreal! I started thinking this was going to be an ordinary run, you know: maintain the car's position, gain by driving carefully, hope there are no problems... But when the Safety Car came out, there was no-one ahead of me, so... I was in the lead, but I didn't believe it at first! Anyway, I did my best to defend, I drove well despite the weather which was a bit scary at times, and then Rei wanted to get me on this one-stop strategy, so I had a lot to think about, but we made it!_

-The guys in the booth have noted that you've completed your mandatory driving time. Are you done for the day?

_-I think I am, because Nagisa has to finish his time now, then Haru wants the night stint._

-What's the goal now? Do you think you win this race?

_-I still think there's no particular goal other than to enjoy ourselves. Of course, now we might have a chance for a podium, it would be a pity to not fight for it, so I did my best, but honestly, I just want everyone to come away from the race happy, and we've already done lots towards that._

-Thank you, Makoto, let's indeed hope that it is all smiles in two and a half hours' time.

 

Makoto walked over to pit wall to see his friends. Gou and Rei congratulated him warmly, the latter in between two radio conversations with Nagisa, but the praise wasn't heaped on him to the point of embarrassment, as the managers kept their focus on the ongoing race. Haru was characteristically reserved and also mildly concentrated. He could feel Makoto's satisfaction though, and as far as his childhood friend's race was concerned, it was “mission accomplished”: he had enjoyed the drive, and was smiling again. Haru returned the expression when their eyes met. The exchange was quiet, no words were needed.

“Well, if I'm not needed here, I should have a wash”, said Makoto after a moment.

“Take your time”, said Haru.

“Yeah, maybe, for a change, I'll have a long bath like you do, Haru-chan!”, Makoto laughed as he left the wall. He had turned away too quickly for Haru to tell him to “drop the - _chan_ ”, but he knew he had thought it.


	28. A Boy in the Water

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. This segment is very long and took a while to finish, especially as I was in Kyoto for three weeks. Bit by bit though, I've got there, and I'm relieved and excited to release a new chapter! It's the start of Haru's final stint at Suzuka, and I've decided I'll publish the end of the 8 Hours this month, so stay tuned!  
> Also, I have some time to myself again, so I'll be moving on towards the conclusion of the series. It should be quite quick from here!

**SEVENTH HOUR HIGHLIGHTS**

  * Chaotic scrap for overall lead between Nagisa Hazuki (#17 Chrysler), Gary Oak (#9 Volkswagen), Fantasio (#23 Peugeot) and Penny Pitstop (#4 Veritas). Pitstop put in spin at Chicane, able to continue; leader Fantasio given Driving Standards Warning.

  * Controversial collision at Degner between X2 frontrunners Bugs Bunny (#60 Alpine) and Jerry (#53 Kia) brings out fourth Safety Car of the day.

  * Quick stop puts Iwatobi Chrysler back in the lead; Haru Nanase (#17 Chrysler) spectacularly outpaces Spirou (#23 Peugeot) on restart. Naruto Uzumaki (#7 McLaren) starts to claw through the field from the back of the lead lap.

  * Yamazaki (#22 Mazda) spins at Hairpin, Road Runner (#61 Alpine) spins at chicane, both continue. #3 Maybach out (mechanical) after difficult weekend.

  * X1 lead lap: 17-(8”)-23-(8”)-9-(5”)-19-7-4-38-(15”)-22. X2 lead lap: 80-(13”)-52-(11”)-99-(20”)-85. 1 hour remaining.




 

 ***

 

Drip. Splash. Patter-patter.

Raindrops fell on the area of the windscreen off of which a mechanic had just wiped the grime that had accumulated over the previous 55 minutes. Behind the glass, and through the opening of his white and blue helmet, Haru's eyes looked ahead piercingly. For this particular moment, which would hopefully be short, he could do nothing but wait. Wait for the refuelling to end. Outside the car, there was nothing more his friends could do either. Nagisa was biting his nails, praying that there would be no mishap. More than ever, the Iwatobi Racing Team's result hinged on the pit crew's performance. Since it was running the only Chrysler in the race, the squad had received reinforcements from the factory, technicians who, up until then, had been working on the victorious number 16 effort.

The jacks went up and the tyres could be changed. The front ones first, then the lollipop man repositioned himself to give the release order. That was when Haru got ready to fire up the engine and go. The sign showed “BRAKES”, so he kept the left pedal pressed down. That way, the car would drop squarely to the ground when the jacks retracted. As soon as it did, the lollipop flipped to “ENGINE, IN GEAR” and lifted. Haru didn't delay in starting the car, selecting first gear, gently applying the throttle to pull away without any wheelspin, and enabling the speed limiter. Nagisa breathed a sigh of relief into his clasped hands, while Gou, Makoto and Rei gave the garage signs of satisfaction, and the mechanics applauded themselves. Unless a technical problem appeared on the blue and white Chrysler, their tasks for the day were done. No more pit stops were scheduled, no more tactics. Fifty minutes remained, the Sun had set, and it was all up to Haru to finish the job in a direct fight with Spirou. In this rematch of Le Mans 2014, the Japanese driver had the upper hand on the Belgian. But was it because the latter was managing himself differently to back then, this time keeping his answer in reserve for the last hour?

Haru couldn't let the pressure get to him. He had to attack straight away to have any chance of staying ahead of his rival of the day. Taking deep breaths, strolling down the pit lane at 60 km/h, he noticed his historical rival, Rin, saluting him as he drove by the Samezuka pit stall. It wasn't far from there to the end of pit lane, where he could disable the limiter, and accelerate out into the rain and darkness. His mission: win the race.

 

**196 th lap completed. #17 Chrysler stops. #22 Mazda stopped one lap earlier.**

After the relief that the stop had gone well, the nerves only calmed down for a short moment on pit wall, as a guessing game began on how long it would be before Iwatobi's opponents made their final refuel and tyre change.

“I'll let you know when the 23 comes in”, Rei told the car. Maybe the difference in pace between Haru and Spirou was due to Peugeot attempting a fuel economy run to gain the advantage. “It's hard to tell when it will...”

“I'm not wasting time on speculation”, Haru replied quickly. “I'm pushing already.”

“Careful on the cold tyres”, the tactician reminded. “But yeah, you need to find your rhythm again fast.”

**197 th lap completed. #7 McLaren and #9 VW stop.**

The first data of the stint brought some reassurance to Iwatobi.

“Spirou just did a 2'01 flat”, Rei informed Haru. “He's not exactly blasting into action like I thought he might.”

“I don't need to know that”, the driver replied dryly. “I want the diff when he's pitted.”

Half a minute later, Rei studied the gap back to the cars in the chasing group that had stopped on that lap. He refrained from telling Haru because he had asked the gap back to Spirou specifically, but there was nothing alarming to say.

“It's dropped a bit, but it's not dramatic... Haruka will probably regain some time because his tyres are now warmer than theirs...”

“Rei-kun, he's in!”, Gou shouted suddenly, shaking Rei's shoulder. Spirou had just entered the pit lane and driven behind them. The blue-haired engineer looked left, the wrong way, then right after Gou nudged him again, and he recognised the red position lights of the Onyx. After muttering “that's surely earlier than anyone was betting on”, he pounced on the radio to tell Haru to push.

**198 th lap completed. #23 Peugeot and #19 Maserati stop.**

Spirou's final pit stop was without incident, but he came out of pit lane just as Haru went by. Wearing their yellow plastic overcoats, the Supporters' Club in the grandstands cheered when they saw the Iwatobi machine re-take the lead. The fact that their boys were fighting for the win had them hooked despite the weather. Although Ren and Hayato had complained about the cold during the Safety Car periods when not much happened on track, their excitement stayed palpable.

Inside the car, Haru had noticed his advantage had shrunk.

“What's the diff, Rei?”, he asked.

“Wait until the end of the lap”, pit wall replied. “Spirou's got to get heat into his tyres, keep pushing.”

**199 th lap completed.**

“Diff is 5.3, push, push!”, Rei said with a hint of urgency in his voice when the timing screen was updated. Spirou's low-fuel laps and pit crew had nearly halved the gap compared to before the final stops. Haru acknowledged the communication with a brief and quiet “ _hai_ ”.

Rei went on to study the lap time tables. He checked how many minutes were left and deduced the probable remaining distance. Fuel wasn't going to be an issue. The tyres would last as long as the car didn't run over any debris. It dawned on him that there were no pit stops left, no maintenance to think of. In fact, there was nothing left for him to do apart from monitor the car's performance. His driver confirmed that he could read the pit board, so he didn't even need to talk to him.

“Alright, I guess I'll leave you to it, then”, Rei sighed. “I estimate 20 laps to go if it stays green. Good luck, we're behind you.” With that, the Iwatobi pit wall settled in for the final, suspenseful forty minutes of the race. 

**200 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.7 seconds.**

Eight hours earlier, the idea of Nagisa carving through the pack would have been mentioned as light encouragement. Four hours earlier, Makoto had taken the lead and defended well, but even then, the finish was so far away that no-one was seriously considering an outcome such as a podium. Now, winning looked possible. The boys had been there before, in their very first race. Unlike back then, rain was levelling the competition, and Haru had the measure of his opponent. Still, Makoto, Gou, Rei and Nagisa huddled together, watching on silently.

The members of the Peugeot team had also taken their final positions: Zorglub and the Count of Champignac on the wall, talking to the car, while Fantasio sat in the garage with the mechanics. The squad was more experienced when it came to fighting for victory, and was looking for its fifteenth win, but it didn't take away the nerves. Once again, Spirou was going to have to find a way past Haru. It was likely to be harder than at Le Mans a year earlier, too.

Since Sosuke had spun early in his run, Samezuka weren't in contention for a top spot. The screaming Mazda was in eighth, still on the lead lap, sitting a dozen seconds behind the group scrapping over fourth. Rin was on the pit wall alongside Seijuro, urging his friend on. It seemed to be giving Sosuke some confidence back after his mistake in the previous stint: bit by bit, he edged closer to the fight ahead.

**201 st lap completed. Lead gap: 6.3 seconds.**

“Yes! He's pulling away again!”, said Nagisa enthusiastically. Makoto and Gou grinned, Rei tried. Had anyone been looking at him, they would have seen an uncomfortable wince rather than a relaxed smile.

Out on track, conditions were still tricky. Haru could sense the back end of the car wriggling around more loosely out of some corners.

“Is the rain getting worse?”, he asked.

“Actually, it's getting better on the bottom loop”, Jeremy informed.

“Ok, so it does get worse when I head up to the chicane, I'm not hallucinating.”

The crew chief didn't understand the reply, but didn't ask for clarification. Haru knew what he meant and finished his thought off in his mind.

“At least, I'm not hallucinating yet.”

After taking care through the chicane, he looked out for his pit board: “L6, P1, +6”.

**202 nd lap completed. Lead gap: 6.2 seconds.**

“Stable”, Nagisa remarked. Rei didn't want him to pass comment every lap. At least he wasn't doing it every sector.

Meanwhile, Sosuke was also told about the varying precipitation levels at different points of the circuit. He took care, because this had caught him out at Spa. The cars ahead were defending against each other, which slowed them up, so, despite his caution, Sosuke continued to gain on them.

**203 rd lap completed. Lead gap: 4.9 seconds.**

“Hey! Where'd he lose all that?!”, Nagisa yelled. He looked at the clock: it wasn't half past six yet. “But... there's still so much time left!” Rei sighed loudly and told Nagisa to calm down.

“Rei-chan, you have to tell Haru-chan he's being caught!”, the blond driver insisted.

“He knows, Nagisa-kun, he'll see it on the board!”, Rei snapped back. “Please stop panicking!”

**204 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.2 seconds.**

“He hasn't gained it all back”, Nagisa mumbled. But he had started fidgeting around and breathing loudly into his hands. It was stressing Rei out more than necessary.

“Sorry, Nagisa-kun, I think you should watch from the garage”, he said.

“But Rei-chan, I want to watch this with you!”

“I need calm around me”, Rei explained. Nagisa was a bit upset, but Makoto kindly accompanied him inside, where he promised he could talk all he wanted.

Freed from the surrounding agitation, Rei returned to scrutinising the telemetry. Gou could feel he was still troubled. Deep down, he too was unhappy not to share the moment with Nagisa, but it was for the better. He just sensed that something would get in Haru's way, and he'd have to be on hand to manage it.

**205 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.1 seconds.**

And something did happen. There was contact at the first turn between those fighting over fifth place, some 20 seconds in arrears of Haru. Two cars went wide over the strip of grass and one spun on the tarmac expanses beyond. The immediate beneficiary was Sosuke, who seized the opportunity to take a couple of places, but the situation presented a nightmare prospect to Iwatobi: the possibility of another Safety Car deployment, which would wipe out Haru's advantage.

“Warning to all cars, there are double waved yellows at turn one while we check for debris after a collision”, Race Control told all team managers. Rei didn't pass the message on straight away. There was another minute before Haru reached the final chicane again, so he waited for the next announcement. The First Turn was floodlit, which made it easier for the marshals to see if anything was on the ground that shouldn't be. The car which had spun had left the scene, and no other drivers had suffered through there. Still, the Race Director hadn't issued an update by the time Haru had passed Spoon, so Rei warned about the “caution zone” ahead.

“Do you mean Slow Zone?”, Haru asked to clarify. “Speed limit?” Rei looked at Jeremy who shook his head.

“No, it's not a Slow Zone”, Rei replied. “It's a local yellow.”

“Just brake early into turn 1 and coast through”, Jeremy interrupted. With no set speed limit in the corner, Haru would have to show he was being careful without sacrificing a chunk of his lead, so the engineer had proposed what he believed would be the right balance between safety and pace. After the driver confirmed he understood what was going on, the crew chief turned to talk to Rei, placing one hand on the tactician's shoulder.

“Relax, man!”, he said. “You're gonna lose the plot when your driver needs you.”

“Easy for you, right?”, Rei answered. “Have you been in this situation before?” Jeremy smiled and didn't say whether he had or hadn't.

**206 th lap completed. Lead gap: 4.8 seconds.**

Rei waited for the first split time to see whether Haru had managed the caution area well enough. He was also waiting for news from Race Control. Both came along at the same time: Haru's lead increased by half a second, and the yellow flags were withdrawn at the First Turn. “No debris.” Like at Laguna Seca, the directors of the event tried to avoid deploying the Safety Car so late in the race, especially if it had already been used a lot, as this would skew the decisive battles.

“With that scare behind us”, said Jeremy, “we're into the last half-hour. Time to put out how many laps we have left.”

**207 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.7 seconds.**

“Laps on the board are laps remaining from now on, Haru”, Rei announced. “13 to go if we stay green, keep it up!”

Inside the car, Haru was totally focused. He had found a rhythm which was good enough to keep his chances of winning alive, so he stuck with it. It was particularly important to be comfortable, since the rain was still there, as evidenced by the streaks he would see in the beams of his headlights if he took the time to look at them rather than at the track or the traffic ahead. Far from tired despite the concentration needed to keep the car in line, he was even feeling good in some sections of the circuit, such as the West end that didn't have as much lighting. In the dark, with very few distractions coming from the radio, that sensation he had at Le Mans was coming back.

“ _All you see is what the car sees. Guide it to where it's pointing you._ ”


	29. Countdown to Suzuka finish!

**208 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.6 seconds.**

“The 19 is closing, four seconds behind you, push push!”, Seijuro said to Sosuke. The Samezuka team had moved up two places thanks to the collision between Edd and Fred Jones, but the two cars that had gone off-track were not damaged. For his last race in the Maserati, Edd at least wanted to regain sixth off the Mazda.

The only closer battle on track at that moment was for third place: Hinata Hyuga held the position for Team7, and VW Kanto's surviving number 9 entry followed, looking for a podium finish that would bring a little reward to the squad.

**209 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.4 seconds.**

-Into the last half-hour, it's time for Spirit of the Race, our traditional fan award: you, the listeners or viewers, vote for a driver, a team, an umbrella, I don't know, whatever you want that you feel has contributed to making this race special. We will make nominations, but these are just suggestions, they're totally non-binding, you can vote for whoever or whatever. Send it to us, at-AERS-underscore-Radio with the hashtag “SpiritOTR”, polls close when the chequered flag falls, and we will count the votes before our post-race show. There's an obvious nomination for this, but Paul has had everyone covered with his data screens, so surely he's going to come up with a nomination none of us would have thought of!

-Well, for the sake of being a spoil-sport, I will go for the obvious: the Iwatobi Racing Team! Whatever happens to Haru Nanase in the remaining laps, this squad went from last to first and has shown us something really special today. Although I would like to single out one driver: Makoto Tachibana. He impressed me in that middle stint, with the rain arriving, the way he managed his tyres, the fuel, and kept the car in the lead... We've seen Hazuki and Nanase rise to this sort of challenge before, but for Tachibana, I think this was a first, so I'm very impressed. And to do his driving time with just one pit stop; I mean, Sakura Haruno did her 2:15 in one go, and Zorglub did a third of the race, 2 hours and 40, in one swoop, and that's worthy of a nomination too, but Tachibana did it with one stop. Actually, I'm going to add race engineer Rei Ryugazaki to my nomination, because the one-stopper was likely his idea, and it was brilliantly executed by Makoto Tachibana.

-Ok, obvious, but I'll hand it to you, that was a well-thought-through nomination. Nanase holds a five-second lead as he crosses the line with twenty minutes to go. For Spirit of the Race, I think I'll go for Team7 McLaren. Those guys were miserable mid-race because they had to throw out their strategy, Kakashi Hatake was quite angry... But Team7 got onto a different strategy in the second half of the race, they made an extra pit stop, and Haruno, Uzumaki and now Hinata Hyuga have had to push like hell and fight back through the field to make up for that. The win looks impossible now, unless there's a Safety Car, but Hyuga holds on to third at the moment. Bruce, in pit lane, your call, please.

-Can I nominate the fans?

-You may, you may, excellent choice!

-Because, I can tell you, I've got the Samezuka grandstand opposite me, and they are _noisy_! They really want Sosuke Yamazaki to hold off Edd in the Maserati right now. But in general, despite the rain, despite the wind, the Japanese spectators have stayed. I remember you saying earlier that it wasn't “grand day out” weather, well that sums it up, but the spectators have made it a grand day out at this motor race.

**211 th lap completed. Lead gap: 5.4 seconds.**

Gou thought hard about how to break the stressful and awkward silence Rei had shut himself in since his “13 to go” call.

“How about keeping Haru updated on the number of laps remaining?”, she asked. Rei just shook his head and pointed at the pit board which had already been changed to “L8”. Haru hadn't said he couldn't read the board anymore.

“Are you going to say _anything_ to him?”

Another shake of the head from the tactician. No need. Nothing was wrong. Haru knew what he was doing. Besides, he was likely enjoying not being talked to.

**212 th lap completed. Lead gap: 4.4 seconds.**

Nagisa was loudly alarmed by Spirou's sudden gain. “This is it! He's producing his effort and he's going to catch Haru-chan!”, he shouted with a theatrical voice of despair. He clung to Makoto, who didn't over-react, but quietly recognised that Nagisa might be right.

Gou was also concerned.

“Aren't you going to tell him about the time loss?”, she asked Rei.

“He'll see the gap on the board”, he replied, with a tense, raspy voice.

“We could check that he hasn't got a problem”, Gou insisted.

“He hasn't called us, so he hasn't got a problem. It's probably traffic, like earlier.”

Gou pouted as Haru headed for the first split. The gap opened back up by a couple of tenths, but Spirou was going to make a net gain. The commentators also had an eye on the fluctuating difference between the two drivers.

**213 th lap completed. Lead gap: 4.8 seconds.**

-Spirou has taken a few tenths out of Haru Nanase again in sector two, but he needs to be gaining full seconds now, because time is running out and he has to catch up _and_ overtake. It didn't help Nanase, I think, that he caught the Powerpuff Bertone when he did.

-Yes, because the Ford and the Volvo were putting on a bit of show there, but they're not on the same lap, so that's not a battle _per se_! Surely, Spirou's best hope now is that Nanase makes some kind of mistake.

-To be honest, I don't think he's going to get one. We're seeing Nanase, a lot like at Le Mans last year, very focused, very consistent. He loses some time in traffic, but not his composure. I won't say anymore before I curse him... And perhaps I'll stop thinking about it too! How's the battle for third doing?

-There's the battle for third, but there's the battle for sixth as well, Yamazaki versus Edd, and that's the closest one on track at the moment: the gap is down to just 1.2 seconds!

**214 th lap completed. Lead gap: 4.5 seconds.**

The Peugeot team could sense their chances of winning fading by the minute. Encouragement on the radio from Zorglub became more pushy; he ordered Spirou to find some extra pace.

“Easier said than done!”, was the slightly irritated reply from the car. “The visibility is still poor in the traffic.”

The rain increased briefly, which meant that it became a bit harder for pursuers to get very close to their rivals because of the spray. This broke up the fight for third, evenly spacing the Team7 McLaren, the number 9 Kanto car and the 2014 Suzuka winner, the Peter Perfect Racing Veritas. It also offered a reprieve to Sosuke in sixth, who continued to hold off the Maserati.

Ten minutes remained on the clock, and the supporters started to cheer their favourite cars on for a final push. As often that day, few groups were louder than Samezuka's contingent. The swimmers were used to yelling boistrously for their team, and they were not only delighted to watch Sosuke hang on to his place, they also began making some noise for Haru as he edged one lap closer to victory.

**215 th lap completed. Lead gap: 3.9 seconds.**

“Are they cheering for Iwatobi?”, Momo remarked. The younger Mikoshiba had been on-site for the team in case he was needed, but he hadn't driven in practice, as his brother had promised Sosuke.

“Nothing wrong with that, Momo. They're not fighting us directly”, Rin replied firmly. In fact, he was secretly rooting for Haru as well. He didn't show it, so as not to distract Seijuro, but in the Mazda garage, Ai spoke more openly.

“I'm going to be gutted if Nanase-san somehow loses this!”, he told an engineer. Ultimately, if one of the two “swim teams” could win a race, it didn't matter which one; both would be happy.

Meanwhile, back at Peugeot, after the brief satisfaction of seeing Spirou set a great lap time, the Count of Champignac noticed that something had gone wrong.

“The batteries are full, are you not using the KERS?”

“I am right now”, Spirou replied. “My dash says 'full' too... Ah crap, just what we needed!”

“Confirm: hybrid system not delivering power. Keep your head down, that last lap was great. Even without the KERS, you can do it!”

**216 th lap completed. Lead gap: 4.4 seconds.**

“He's regained .5! _IKEEEEE_!”, Nagisa and Goro both shouted upon seeing their respective updated timing screens. It was the first time in a dozen minutes or so that Haru had gone faster than Spirou on a clear lap, and Gou let out a short “yes!” to mark the occasion, while Rei continued to stoically stare at the telemetry. He was forced to react though when Nagisa ran out to pit wall after seeing Haru gain another tenth in the first sector.

“How many laps, Rei-chan? This is taking forever!”, the blond driver demanded. As the race clock drew ever closer to 8 hours, the remaining distance became more and more certain, because there would be no time to do less or more even if the Safety Car came out. Still refusing to utter a word, Rei turned around to face Nagisa and Makoto, who was highly apologetic for failing to keep his team-mate in the garage, and showed a number of fingers.

**3 laps remaining. Lead gap: 4.9 seconds.**

The Japanese crowd grew eager in the final five minutes, anticipating a win for a local crew, though few groups were as anxious for the race to end as the Iwatobi Supporters Club. The white and blue bird flags were waving more frantically lap after lap, the younger spectators were jumping with excitement each time the number 17 car passed them still in the lead, while most of the parents were sitting in a silent wait for the chequered flag. Much like his son, Mr Ryugazaki had run out of things to say. There was nothing left to speculate about, it was a straight-forward chase to the flag, and all he could do was hope that Haru would hold on. The signs were encouraging, as Spirou had never broken the four-second barrier, so, on pace, the win was starting to look safe. The Tachibanas and the Nanases were also calm. They trusted that everything would go well. But the possibility of a last-minute mechanical heartbreak was more or less present in everyone's mind. Once again, Mrs Hazuki was nerve-racked. The sight of Nagisa pacing in front of the garage added to the intensity of the moment.

 **@HanaChigusa – 22/11/2015 18:56:** [Chigusa selfie in front of supporters either pensive or biting their nails] We must be dreaming, @IwatobiRC is still leading the #AnimeRace! So close to the finish! COME OOOON, HARU!

**2 laps remaining. Lead gap: 5.7 seconds.**

-We've noticed that the gap at the front has gone back up to six seconds, but that was due to a slow lap from Spirou, rather than Haru Nanase responding with an exceptional lap.

-Three minutes left, so there will be only one more lap after this one, no matter what. Pit lane atmosphere: Joe, you're down at Iwatobi, what's it like there?

-I'm telling you, these guys are _tense_! Rei Ryugazaki, the race engineer, has not flinched for the last ten minutes at least, he's been staring at the telemetry screens, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but for now, there's been no cause for alarm despite the gap ebbing and flowing. Obviously, no-one wants to speak to me, not even Nagisa Hazuki who's usually quite happy to chat.

-And Bruce is down at Peugeot. After that disappointing lap, what's the mood?

-Zorglub's just quickly told me that Spirou is battling an issue with the car, he didn't say what, so maybe they'll have to settle for second, but there's no denying there's still a fighting spirit here. This team has been up towards the front all race, yet actually led very little, but they know they only need to be in the lead when the clock strikes 7.

-We're covering the overall top two as the penultimate lap is underway here at Suzuka. Of course, our thoughts are also with Team Rocket, set to record a dominant victory here in the X2 class, for their last race with the Alfa Romeo. Animaniacs Racing are taking over the works operation for the Italian brand next year, they're headed for third once again, but they are still close enough to second place to benefit from a mistake.

 

***

 

Haru had enjoyed a dozen laps with no noise other than the engine, and his vision limited to what his car's headlamps were illuminating. The isolation from the elements had made him feel cosy. At times, the little LEDs on his steering wheel which indicated when he should shift up a gear were all he could see inside the car. No alarms had gone off, and he had received no calls, so he had been free to concentrate on finishing off the relay. He knew that wherever he finished wouldn't make a difference to his friends, they would be happy with any result after the race they'd had. Winning outright was also of little importance to him. But he was facing Spirou, and the outcome of the duel did matter to him – there was something he could ask if he won.

Coming out of 130R, he entered the floodlit zone which stretched from the chicane to the end of the first sector. As he accelerated onto the main straight, his peripheral vision failed to spot Makoto and Nagisa perched over pit wall, urging him on like he had just made the final turn in the pool, but he made out little splashes on the windscreen in between wipes, where raindrops were coming down. They glistened in the yellow-orange overhead lighting and evolved into luminous butterfly shapes.

“ _That sight I saw back then..._ ”

“Ok, Haruka, this is the last lap. Diff is 5.3... Bring it home!”, a tense voice told him on the radio after he had passed the First Turn.

“You've got it, Butt...”, Haru replied, interrupting himself when he made the connection between what he was seeing and what he was hearing.

“You misread the gap, 'Butt', it's 6.3”, laughed Gou. For once, she had the chance to correct Rei! The commentators had a different opinion after the radio message had been aired on the live broadcast: they believed that Rei was lying so that Haru wasn't tempted to drop his guard, which was a dangerously error-prone attitude.

In any case, the Iwatobi driver wasn't backing off. He continued to drive as he had done until then, despite the visions getting bigger. As he reached the crest of the long, uphill left-handed Dunlop Curve, a penguin, a dolphin and an orca seemed to leap out of the puddles on his outside, all three in sync. As always, being in the zone like this didn't distract Haru. Unperturbed, he hit the braking point for Degner as precisely as he had done many times before.

“ _Haru... Haru-chan... We're waiting for you!_ ”

The gap back to Spirou continued to rise. Rei could see it on the split times, but he didn't mention it on the radio. Even Nagisa and Gou, who had wanted to warn Haru about the time he had lost earlier, daren't suggest telling him. In spite of his impatience, Nagisa was busy warning against premature celebrations. He wasn't happy when the mechanics started coming out of the garage with team and manufacturer flags in their hands with half a lap to go. Then he saw Jeremy and Makoto spelling the word “WINNER” on the pit board.

“No! You'll jinx it!”, he yelled at them.

“It's that or we leave P1 on it, what's the difference?”, Makoto sharply replied. Nagisa didn't want to be a part of these preparations, so he ran back to the garage and watched Haru's final turns from there, on his own.

The blue and white machine was on the dark side of the circuit. The red lights of a backmarker were up ahead. Going into Spoon Curve, Haru thought to himself that he would catch the slower car at 130R, just like on the Friday. It was therefore important to not take risks, and wait behind it until the final chicane...

“I'm still on your case, Haru!”, an unseen figure told him over his shoulder. With an unmistakable accent, he knew perfectly whose voice it was, or, at least, whose voice he was _imagining_ it was. He didn't look back, he floored the throttle uphill towards the fast left-hander where he had crashed two days earlier. The lapped X2 car pulled over to let the leader through without danger, so Haru took his normal line through 130R.

 

The scene on the other side of the bend bewildered him. Lying on the left-hand side of the circuit, with slumped wheels and a broken wing was his car, and he was standing next to it, face down.

“ _Haru, come and join us_ ”, those familiar voices spoke again.

His shadow self looked up to see Makoto, Nagisa and Rei standing on the opposite side, their arms extended. The ghost Haru began to cross the track... and the real Haru braked in avoidance. It was the right point to be slowing for the chicane anyway. He left the vision behind, and concentrated on the last obstacle between himself and the finish line.

 

The entire audience stood to greet the Iwatobi car's arrival on the home straight. Photographers had their cameras ready; the Race Director, perched out of his booth, had the chequered flag unfurled. Nagisa dashed back out to the wall, where Makoto had heaved the pit board over to show Haru his finishing position. Cheers rose up from the grandstands when the number 17 car rounded the last corner, and the sight of headlights flashing into their eyes brought instant joy and relief to Makoto and Nagisa, while the mood at Peugeot turned more sombre. It was the moment of defeat. Fantasio dejectedly let out a brief “ _fait chier_ ”, while Zorglub and the Count gave each other a typically French shrug of the shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...aaaand tune in Saturday to find out what happened after the line was crossed!


	30. Suzuka reaction

Rei had sensed the atmosphere around him changing. A twitch in his eye acknowledged it, but his focus remained glued to the timing screen...

...until a little chequered icon appeared on the line “1 – #17 – IWATOBI R.T. – NANASE H”.

Rei gasped hard, bringing his hands to his face, then exhaled in a muffled scream of relief. Nearest to him, Gou and Jeremy slapped his shoulders repeatedly, while all around him, the pit crew was shouting and jumping. But he wasn't joining in. He was panting with disbelief, fixated on the screen again. Somehow, he couldn't believe that the read-out hadn't changed in the last hour, and that now, it wouldn't change. _His team had won._ He wasn't listening to the cheers either, as he had the most extraordinary sound coming through on his headset. Gou could hear it too, and the pair looked at each other as if to confirm that Haru's uncharacteristically exuberant victory cries were real.

“ _YATTA! YATTA!_ YES! HAHA! YESYESYES!”

“Haruka-senpai... Haruka-senpai...”, Rei called back. Those were his first words since the finish, and, still largely confused by the situation, he instinctively referred to Haru like he used to. Unable to construct anything in English, which was the normal language for radio communications since Jeremy had to understand them, he just repeatedly blurted out “ _kirei... kirei_!”

While Makoto and Gou were hugging and high-fiving with the mechanics, Nagisa jumped on Rei from behind and yelled “Haru-chan, you hero!” over his shoulder so that the driver would hear it.

“Rei, Nagisa...”, Haru replied, and continued in Japanese, “that was a good one. Everyone was amazing.” He then switched back to English.

“ _For the team. This was for the team!_ ”

The words resonated in Rei's mind and cranked the emotions back up a notch. The team was well and truly back together after all it had been through. He removed the headset and lay his face on the console.

“Rei-chan?”, Nagisa worried as he sat next to him. After a few seconds, his best friend looked back up at him. Tears had welled up in his eyes. Just as they had on the eve of the National swim meet two years prior, they spread to Nagisa.

“That was so beautiful...”, Rei managed to say before being totally overcome. He lunged forward to cry in Nagisa's arms.

 

Further up pit lane, Samezuka's race had also finished.

“Sixth place, Yamazaki, good job to hold on to that”, Seijuro complimented. “I'm satisfied with our race today.”

“Thanks”, Sosuke replied. “I'm sorry for the spin though, I know we could have finished higher.”

“Never mind the spin!”, chirped Rin. “That was a great finish!”

“You sound very happy, Rin”, the driver observed. “Was it _that_ good?”

“That might be more to do with Iwatobi winning the race”, Seijuro answered.

“You're joking”, said Sosuke. “You mean 'podium', right?”

“Nono, it is the win.”

“Wow”, the racer managed after a moment of incredulous silence. “You were right, Seijuro, there really was an opportunity today... We missed it somehow.”

“Quit worrying, Sosuke!”, the manager ordered. “It's the end of the season, we've not had a bad one, so let's enjoy ourselves!”

 

Meanwhile, Makoto had nudged his bawling companions so that he could use the radio. Haru was heading towards the Hairpin when he heard his closest friend call.

“Haru?”

“Makoto...”

“Hey, that was pretty incredible.” Makoto's tone in the conversation was surprisingly intimate, considering the animation that surrounded him.

“Was that the kind of race you wanted?”, Haru asked.

“This... this was much more than I... needed or could have wished for”, Makoto replied emotionally. “Wow, you did it.”

“No, Makoto”, Haru said back firmly. “ _We_ did it. We all did it. Together.”

“Sure, although... once again, in the water, you're the best, Haru-chan!”

“Ha! That, we will see”, Haru responded cryptically and totally unfazed by his friend's clever use of an old catchphrase. Makoto didn't have the time to react to the reply, because Gou was pointing out that someone should talk to the press. After a quick “see you shortly, I can't wait”, he hopped down from pit wall.

-At the moment, Rei Ryugazaki and Nagisa Hazuki are unavailable for comment, but here's Makoto Tachibana. Makoto... You've still got that huge smile on your face after eight hours, it's great to see! How are you feeling right now?

- _For now, it's mostly... I don't know what it is mostly right now! The whole race has been a sequence of things I just can't believe. I couldn't believe it when Nagisa made all those passes on the first lap, I couldn't believe it when we took the lead, I couldn't believe it when I saw Haru pull away from Spirou... I still can't believe the race we've had!_

-You've watched your team-mate Haru Nanase fight for a win before, how did this compare to Le Mans last year?

- _This was way more intense, because, this time, Haru showed he could open a gap, and then he had to maintain it. It's one thing when Spirou catches up fast and it's a straight fight you know you're gonna lose... But this time, we say no, Haru can really beat him, and when the gap went up, we were happy...and then it went down, and we all... froze and were scared! Haru pulled away again in the end, but that was an exciting and horrible wait!_

-Well Makoto, the wait is over: you guys have won the Suzuka 8 Hours! I'll just let that soak in.

-Ha, “soak in”, it's raining, I get it... Thank you, Joe. On to Bruce who's at the other end of pit lane with Fantasio.

-Fantasio, it's second place for Peugeot here at Suzuka. You look... a tad disappointed.

- _I am disappointed, it's second place, and second place is always disappointing when you come to win. We had a good chance to do that today but we had a problem at the end. It's a pity to lose out because of that, but that's the game._

-But even before the problem, it didn't look like Spirou had an answer to Haru Nanase.

- _I disagree, I think he did have an answer, and he was going to pressure Nanase into a mistake... But yeah, also Nanase's driving was very strong today, and he deserves credit for it. The win is a big result for that team..._

-And it's a popular victory, listen to the crowd!

- _For sure, the local public is going to love this result. On paper, it's a nice result with a home win for a new winner. It's not so nice that we are second and could have been first. Well...It's still an okay finish to our season, I guess._

-Thank you, Fantasio. You've got a podium to look forward to, so enjoy it.

-Popular win, absolutely, well said, Bruce, and that cheer is for Tachibana who's been talking on the PA. Now we see him and Hazuki waving at the group of Iwatobi supporters just opposite their pit box; they've been there all afternoon. Back at Iwatobi, Joe has the race engineer, Rei Ryugazaki.

-Rei Ryugazaki, you knew you were going to start last, so you didn't show your hand in qualifying... Turns out you had a few aces up your sleeve! What a race!

- _Oh man, what a crazy race... Haruka, Nagisa and Makoto drove so well today... Perfection... Just beautiful. It's like I've got the three best drivers in the world on my team right now! And not only that, but the best team in the pits too, because the crew prepared the car when we decided to change it on Friday, they had so much work, and they were perfect in the pit stops... Really, I... [removes glasses and wipes eyes] can't express how proud I am of the whole team._

-Very emotional, Rei Ryugazaki. Your car is not far from the pits now, we should let you get over to Victory Lane. Enjoy the podium!

Luckily, the Iwatobi Racing Team's garage wasn't far from pit entry, where parc fermé for the podium finishers was situated. Makoto, Nagisa and Rei were allowed to be in the winner's enclosure, so they stood near the barriers and their mechanics, waiting for the Chrysler to appear. Beyond the chequered floor, the Peugeot and the McLaren arrived in close sequence, Spirou and Hinata got out and were joined by their team-mates who would go up to the podium. Then the familiar blue and white machine turned in, showered with flashes from cameras. No sooner had the vehicle stopped than Nagisa jumped forward, dropped to his knees and spread himself over the front-left wing to hug 'Rockhopper' as he had done at the pre-season test. It was almost like hugging a person; he could feel the warmth from the headlights through his overalls. He scrambled back up again when he noticed the door open.

The driver calmly unstrapped himself and took his time to get out. Makoto had come to expect very measured celebrations from Haru and thought that this time would be no different. But once Haru had made sure everything was in order as he stepped out, he leapt at Makoto to hug him! The sensation of surprise was shared by the tall young man, who had to watch out for a hard helmet coming his way, and Rei and Nagisa, who quickly put their arms in the mix. The latter noticed Haru's eyes beneath the visor: it was clear that he was smiling more than ever, but the chin guard meant that no-one could actually see the grin. The four boys stood beside the car in a tight embrace, just as they had beside the pool after their National relay, in a bubble outside of which the sound of their laughter couldn't be heard. Neither the rain, which was soaking Rei in particular as he was wearing only his blue shirt, nor the incessant calls from journalists surrounding parc fermé bothered them.

Nearby, Rin had caught up with Gou. He offered his congratulations and a big brotherly hug, then the two turned to watch the scene of the four Iwatobi team members as one again. It was Haru who broke the huddle eventually, and he tapped the roof of his car before climbing onto it and inviting Makoto and Nagisa to do likewise on the car's wings. Rei decided to run over to the barriers and grab Gou so she could be a part of the celebrations.

“Rei-kun, I'm not supposed to...”, she protested, not wanting to breach protocol - she didn't know if it would entail any kind of penalty.

“I'm sure it'll be no problem. Come on!”, Rei insisted, and an amused Rin picked his lightweight, screaming sister up to haul her over the barriers and into her tactician's arms.

“Well, you're in parc fermé now, you might as well join us”, Rei laughed, carrying her over to the car. With the managers standing in front of him, Haru could stage the classic crew-on-the-roof pose: he grabbed a sleeve of each of his co-drivers and yanked them up. He was quite forceful, Nagisa nearly lost his footing on the front-left wheel guard! A deluge of flashes poured on the squad once again, and the spectators reacted loudly, with air horns going off in large numbers.

There was still a measure of bewilderment among the friends and families of the team. They were overjoyed, of course, but they were also blown away by the result and the unanimous reaction to it. All those cheers were for _their_ boys. There was also some relief; it had been a long race for them too, and sitting the grandstands in the wind and rain for the last five hours had been well worth it.

Meanwhile, Haru was undoing his helmet strap, and there was anticipation, particularly from Makoto and Nagisa, to see what face would be revealed. To their surprise, it was just regular Haru. No broad smile, no hint of exhilaration. In fact, he had shown a more expressive side _because_ he had the helmet on. The mask hid the kind of face the reserved man wasn't used to showing, and a sparkle in his eye was all that was left of the moment of triumph once the mask had come off. As Haru carefully tucked his gloves into his helmet, Jeremy gave him a couple of taps on the arm and reminded him that he had to carry his equipment to the weighing room en route to the podium.

“Just over there”, he pointed out. With that, Haru waved to the rest of the mechanics and went for his post-race check. Once he was registered, the three drivers and the race engineer, since a team manager was allowed to accompany the winners on the podium, marched up the stairs to the lounge. Rei had been handed a team jacket to cover his damp shirt on the way. As for Gou, she returned behind the barriers surrounding Victory Lane with Rin's help, just as Sosuke arrived.

“I guessed you'd run after Iwatobi again”, the tall dark-haired man said to his team-mate. “Congratulations, Gou. That's one impressive race you guys had.”

“Thanks!”, she replied. “You guys had a good race too, keeping with the lead group for a long time.” Sosuke looked down. He still felt that his spin had cost the team a shot at the podium.

“You did your very best, Sosuke”, Rin reassured once again. “Cheer up, a big party's about to start!” Indeed, the atmosphere was getting more and more festive. To mark the occasion of Japanese nationals winning their home event, as well as the end of the season, spectators came down from the grandstands onto the track to get closer to the podium. The Iwatobi Supporters Club seized the opportunity to shift to the right and stand directly opposite the rostrum, while still staying under the shelter of the canopy. By being above track level, they also had a clearer view of where their drivers would appear a few moments later. The circuit announcer was building up to the appearance of the top three crews...

 

“Please make lots of noise for the third place finishers, winners of the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours and champions of the 2015 season: Team7 McLaren, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura!”

The reception of the “season champions” was indeed impressive. Although there was no official title in the Series yet (it was due to arrive the following year), it hadn't escaped the local commentators that, according to the 2016 Trophy rules, Team7 would have ended 2015 with the highest points tally, courtesy of the Le Mans win and three more podium finishes, so it did the ambiance no harm to make the claim. Arnold's number 16 Chrysler had the best record on paper, but retirement at the double-points Le Mans race would have cost the car's championship challenge dearly.

“And in second place, valiant fighters as ever, the 2014 champions! Please welcome them back to Japan after a four-year absence: Spirou, Fantasio and Zorglub, the Peugeot drivers!”

The mood was still upbeat in the Belgian camp. Spirou had told Haru that he expected a season with more moderate results after an exceptional 2014, and he looked quite happy with the day's work. The black and yellow trio shook hands with the three portrayed as their successors, and took their place on the second step of the podium. In the opposite grandstand, the Tachibanas, the Nanases, the Hazukis, the Ryugazakis, as well as Chigusa, Kisumi and Hayato, Miss Amakata and Coach Sasabe, braced themselves for the most exhilarating moment of the weekend, and prepared to yell louder than ever.

“And finally, please give monumental applause for a monumental performance! They climbed all the way through the field in thrilling style and are first-time winners! Nanase Haru, Tachibana Makoto and Hazuki Nagisa: Iwatobi Racing Team win the Anime Race!”

And so the heroes of the day ran forward, greeted by an astounding ovation of cheers and air horns, not to mention a familiar tune on the PA: the instrumental of _Ever Blue_ , a song about swimming as a team they knew very well. Inevitably, the four relayers sang it together, more or less unreservedly. Haru, for instance, was rather quiet, while Nagisa was shouting, quite out of tune because of the emotion. Below the podium, Rin and Gou were singing too. In the final part of the main verse, Haru suggested a change to the lyrics: “I race for my team, we race together”, words with huge meaning to him, and that he had used effectively during the bad times. A further eruption of applause took over when the chorus ended. The drivers turned to congratulate their opponents, then stepped up in between them, and higher than them.

“With them is their race engineer, Ryugazaki Rei, to take the trophy for the team. Now, first of all, please rise for our national anthem!”

To show respect, as usual, everyone on the podium removed their caps for _Kimigayo_. It was a landmark moment, the first time a Japanese-registered team had won a race since the introduction of the Experimental rules in 2014, as successful works teams, like Team7, Kanto or Rocket, ran under their manufacturer's flag – for instance, during the following X2 podium, the Italian anthem would be played.

Nagisa looked around him discreetly, and saw Haru with his eyes passionately closed and his head up. He made a remark about it while third place medals were being handed out.

“I didn't think you were the patriotic type, Haru-chan”, he said.

“Actually...”, Haru replied sheepishly, “I was feeling the water on my face.”

“Well, at least you kept your clothes on!”, Makoto laughed, with Rei and Nagisa joining in. They had forgotten that it was still raining. Haru was amused, and let out a brief scoff behind one hand.

The Iwatobi boys' turn to receive their prizes came along. The package included a victory wreath and a figure-of-8 statuette, representing both the race duration and the shape of the Suzuka circuit itself. Nagisa was happily looking at his gift when a large version of it appeared.

“Wow!”, he exclaimed. “Do we get that too?” Makoto urged Nagisa to have more restraint about it, but yes, it was theirs for one year. Like the big trophy at the 24-hour race, it would be given definitively to any squad that won the event three times. After bowing again to the circuit manager and the CEO of the Series, the four lifted the prize above their heads to another huge cheer from the crowd and applause from the crews either side of them.

For any podium finisher though, the most eagerly awaited moment was the Champagne battle. Once the bottles were handed out, the eight men and two women had only seconds to decide who to aim for first... and there was something of a majority that went for Haru! Nagisa, Makoto and Rei all reasoned that if he wanted to be wet, this was his chance, and Spirou crept behind the winning quartet to shower his opponent! Nagisa was forced to leave the gang-up when he was attacked by Naruto, but that made little difference as Haru was surrounded and drenched. The bubbly wasn't like water though – it had a smell for a start, an alcohol-sweet smell, and it was stickier. It wasn't as nice as water, but he let it happen. After half a dozen seconds, the pressure in the fizz died down, and Makoto stepped down from the rostrum to toast with Fantasio and others.

But he neglected to notice that Haru hadn't opened his bottle. Soon, a sharp, twinkling blue eye opened and looked for its target. Then, as swiftly as he was capable of removing a tie and a shirt, Haru sprung into action and took his revenge on Makoto! He did so all while maintaining a delighted, yet not euphoric expression, whereas his friend was laughing at how unusually mischievously Haru was acting. Once the spray died down, Makoto turned and put an arm around his aggressor.

“You got me there”, he stated, while the others arrived. A line with the ten podium finishers formed for the final photo opportunity before they had to leave the space for the top three teams in the X2 category, and head for the press conference room.

 

The official interviews were to begin in a joyous mood. When choosing his seat, Nagisa let off some banter about the odour of Champagne.

“Haru-chan's had, what, a bottle and a half poured on him”, he estimated. “Anyone who gets within two metres of him risks getting drunk from the smell!”

“You've been well sprayed too, _dattebayo_ ”, Naruto joked back. “Your race engineer's a bit close, he should be careful!”

Once again, the Iwatobi team took centre stage. It was traditional for the race winner to be asked a question first, so Haru thought about his words while waiting for the “small class” celebrations to end outside. The live broadcast ran a final recap of the finishing order, then it was time to hear from the drivers.

“Welcome to the press conference for this final AERS race for 2015, the Suzuka 8 Hours”, the interviewer began. “After an extraordinary 'burn from the stern', the win has gone to the Iwatobi Racing Team. Haru Nanase, driver of the final stint, to beat Spirou in this rematch of Le Mans 2014, you must be delighted.”

The question asked was irrelevant to Haru. He didn't want to focus on his supposed rivalry with Spirou. He cleared his throat quietly and began to speak his mind.

“Yes, it's certainly a nice result. For me though, the main victory is to get to the end of a race we nearly didn't start. I put the team in a difficult situation on Friday, but the pit crew – we have a great pit crew –, the mechanics worked so hard to get the spare ready. They had all that extra work because of my mistake, so I was very motivated to give something back and perform today. To win is huge, the team will be very happy with that, but it's more than we needed. The main satisfaction for me is that we all had an eventful and interesting relay today.”

Haru's modesty was embarrassing to his team-mates. He was once again talking as if he had simply finished the job, but he had put in the effort to glue the squad back together after the awful start to the weekend, and his performance in the car had once again been astounding. Makoto couldn't take his tender eyes off of his calm friend as his phrase on the radio, “more than we needed” was repeated, and one of the most important words of their lives, “relay”, concluded the answer.

The interviewer moved on to Spirou, but he didn't get much out of the Belgian driver either, who started his declaration by dedicating the result to his country.

“Bruxelles is under some kind of curfew, if I understand correctly”, he said, referring to the aftermath of the Paris attacks, “so I hope this race has brought some entertainment and smiles to those having a hard time back at home.” He went on to compliment Haru's strong driving, and mentioned the loss of his KERS in the closing laps. “I had less power to go after him, so that was that. Sometimes everything goes your way, I mean, we had a great race like that at Spa, but today was not for us. The race gave the chances to Iwatobi and they seized every one; over eight hours, that's how you win. It was their turn, _c'est la vie_.”

The third place finisher, Hinata, then talked about her team's fight-back from eighth with two hours to go up to third. How the arrival of the rain was managed was the next topic, with different reactions coming from Zorglub, Sakura and Rei. As the tactician, the latter was asked if the decision to put intermediate tyres on early was premeditated. Bringing his hand to his glasses showed that he was more than happy to talk about his strategy calls, and he spoke with a broad, proud smile.

“We did think our tyre strategy out in advance, yes.” He complimented Nagisa, for making the most of his start on softs, and Makoto, for his run. “Getting him to do his driving time with just one stop was something that wasn't decided before the race however, and it was hard for Makoto to adapt to that plan in the conditions, but he did it beautifully.” Rei became aware that he'd been more talkative than most, but he still wanted to mention the finish. “And I'd like to say briefly, just how blown away I was by Haru's drive at the end. It was up to him to get the final result, and he did it...” By now, the interviewer was signalling that he had to move on, so Rei nodded and left it at that. Nagisa completed Rei's speech by heaping more praise on Haru, who seemed unaffected by it. But his team-mate was a crafty soul and found a way to eke a reaction out of his older friend.

“Hearing the anthem for us was a huge honour, and I'm sure that Haru-chan will hear it again in the pool one day!” With a surprised smirk, Haru ruffled up the back of Nagisa's hair. The blond boy then returned to the question he had been asked about the start of the race. He had been involved in several close calls, including one later in the race, with Fantasio and the Veritas, when going three abreast into the chicane and the move ended in contact. About that, the Peugeot driver said “I knew we were three-wide, so I had to be careful, then I braked a bit late and got into the side of Penny's car. Not my best move, sure, the Veritas went spinning off... I don't know how Hazuki avoided that, to be honest!”

The season-ending press conference continued in a very upbeat atmosphere, until the last question was asked.

“Makoto Tachibana, as far as I'm aware, your team hasn't revealed its plans for 2016 yet. So, quite simply: are you coming back?”

Makoto gulped. It was a hard question to answer, but he decided not to evade it.

“I know everyone's expecting a big 'yes' to that, it would be easy to get carried away with our result today. Today was by far our best day of the year just because we had a race with good pace and not too much hindrance... but we've had quite a few not-so-good days. Sorry, I don't have an answer. We should settle and reflect collectively on what sort of programme we want. In any case, we want to thank our sponsors and the fans who have been with us for a year and a half. It's all led up to this moment, so for now, let's make the most of it!”

That note ended the interview session, and the other teams gave Makoto's level-headed yet emotional response a round of applause. But the festivities would not stop there for the Iwatobi boys: their mechanics and engineers were looking forward to the end-of-season group photo in front of the garage (the car would be unavailable while it passed scrutineering), and a party that would without doubt go on well into the night.

 

***

**SUZUKA 8 HOURS ANIME RACE - FINAL CLASSIFICATION**

Started: 33 (21 X1, 12 X2) / Classified: 22 (15 X1, 7 X2)

1\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - 220 LAPS

2\. Journal Spirou Peugeot Sport - #23 Peugeot Onyx - Spirou/Fantasio/Zorglub - +0'07"534

3\. Team7 McLaren - #7 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuuga - +0'25"647

...

6\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - +0'38"466 (2 more cars on lead lap)

...

15\. (1st X2) Team Rocket Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Jessie/James/Giovanni - 212 LAPS

16\. (2nd X2) MGM Kia Motorsport - #52 Kia GT4 Stinger - Droopy/Dripple/McWolf - +1'32"053

17\. (3rd X2) Warner Bros. & Sis. - #99 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Y.Warner/W.Warner/D.Warner - +1'36"528

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo, _this_ is where I wanted to take you guys in season 2! Writing-wise, there will be five more chapters to round off the series between now and September, and I'd like to produce some bonuses - pictures, soundbytes, a little fic with extra trivia... If there's something you'd like to see, drop a line [via the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/148054405486/the-future-of-faster) and I'll see if I can do it!  
>  Meanwhile, this is certainly the race I've worked the hardest on (I had to make the Iwatobi win believable! XD), proof being that I have two pages of pit sequences [here](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/148204081326/full-stats-for-four-teams-at-the-suzuka-8-hours)...
> 
> Next chapter on Sunday 7th August!


	31. Swim-off at home!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the motor racing done and dusted for 2015, it's a different kind of race in this chapter... Good fun to write!

**Tuesday 24 th November 2015**

The Tachibana family's dining room had changed a bit since the weekend. One shelf of a cabinet was being reorganised to add Makoto's recently earned trophy and various other memorabilia from the 8 Hours to his collection of medals. Photos of the event were going to be printed and framed. The Monday newspaper, which ran the headline “LOCAL HEROES” next to a picture of the podium celebration, was on the table; the article would soon be cut out and framed too, joining another from September 2014. The wreath the elder son had worn lay at the foot of the furniture. It was a more cumbersome piece, so it wasn't clear where it could go. More than likely, it would be stored in Makoto's old room until he collected it to move wherever he would settle once his studies were finished.

Sitting at the table was Makoto himself, writing his final column for the Iwatobi Morning. It was by far his most joyful piece of the year, yet he already felt that the euphoria was in a distant past. The cheers and noise were gone; in contrast, the house and the town he had returned to were remarkably quiet. Like every time his everyday status took over – Makoto the P.E. student, Makoto the big brother, Makoto the bachelor living in Tokyo, Makoto the backstroke-swimming friend –, he wondered whether Makoto the motor racer had been real, and he looked back at the Suzuka weekend with satisfaction, nostalgia and more than a hint of incredulity.

He concluded just as the doorbell rang. He knew who it was, and rushed to his bedroom to pack a few things while his mother answered. With his bag ready, he sprinted down the stairs to find Rei, Gou and Nagisa in the kitchen. The first two hurried to drink their glasses of water, while the third was reading the paper.

“Sorry, I'm a bit behind”, he apologised.

“It's ok, Mako-chan, at least you've finished this”, said Nagisa. “Ah, the memories!”

“Actually, it's not quite finished, I still need to proofread it”, Makoto replied. “Are we going?”

Nagisa spent some of the subsequent trip reminding Makoto of some details of the Sunday evening that he could add to his article.

“I can't talk about everything, Nagisa!”, he responded, maintaining he was happy with his version. “I have a character count, you know.”

“You must have _some_ room left”, the pesky blond smiled, “for Rei-chan's attempt at tap-dancing, for example!”

“The silly stories are always about me, aren't they, Nagisa-kun?”, Rei intervened. “What about the moment you mentioned Tomoko-chan, huh?” Nagisa's head dipped and his cheeks became rosy. He wasn't proud to have let his feelings slip out that evening. Now everyone knew about his crush and, much like when Rei had learned to swim all four strokes, he found out that some of his friends who shouldn't know already did.

“That's mean, Rei-chan”, he moaned, which didn't stop the other three from chuckling. He reached into his backpack for some comfort in the form of an Iwatobi Cream Bread.

“After all these years, I finally have an anecdote that embarrasses Nagisa-kun!”, Rei stated with a hint of triumph.

“I still don't understand this bet,... this deal Haruka's done”, said Gou, changing the subject. “I mean, it's not much of a dare.”

“Oh, it's not much”, Makoto answered. “Just the sort of thing Haru would remember, really.”

“Yeah, I get that... but other things would have been more... fun to watch”, Gou added.

“There's no way Spirou-san would have accepted the squid-grabbing... hell”, Rei grumbled, before shivering “thank goodness”.

“I wasn't thinking of that, Rei-kun”, Gou replied. “Although Haruka missed this year's festival, so he hasn't done it yet. It would be nice...”

“Ok, that's enough daydreaming!”, Rei said sharply, snapping a finger, eager to steer the conversation away from what had happened that Summer. “What were you thinking of?”, he asked, before adding under his breath, “do I really want to know?”

“I don't know, something like challenging his team to sing _Splash Free_ at a karaoke...”

“MmmMH! SHoundJ grea!”, Nagisa interrupted loudly, with his cheer back.

“Don't speak with your mouth full, Nagisa-kun!”, Rei scolded. “Why are you eating something like that before a swim anyway? The digestion will make you under-perform!”

“That's not true, Rei-chan, I always feel great after eating one of these!”, Nagisa argued back.

“Your metabolism is illogical, Nagisa-kun”, Rei stated quietly, pushing his glasses back up in contempt. Makoto just smiled. Usually, he would walk along the coast with Haru, and the ambiance was often silent and contemplative; with his three younger friends, it was far more lively and amusing. He decided that he liked both atmospheres.

 

Haru had left early and was already at the destination point: the ITSC Returns pool. After the press conference, he had told Spirou of a vague promise he made when the two had talked in Belgium.

“ _If we do get to fight again, and you win... I don't know, maybe I would take up a swimming challenge against you or something. No, there's no point, you'd beat me easily..._ ”

Spirou had half-rescinded the proposal, but it was too late. Haru had caught onto it, and wasn't going to let the chance to swim with his motor racing rival slip away when it presented itself. Initially, Spirou looked offended by Haru's very forward, slightly pushy reminder. But with the security situation getting worse at home, he reasoned that staying in Japan for a few more days wouldn't hurt. Plus, here was a chance for him to return to Europe with an extra topic to write about... So the three Peugeot drivers and their manager went to Iwatobi Town to race a medley relay against the Suzuka winners.

Makoto was the quickest to change, and upon exiting the showers, Haru was talking to Spirou by the pool. The latter waved him over.

“Makoto, great to see you again!”, he greeted.

“Good afternoon. Hey, Haru”, the tall man responded with his best smile. “So, ready to take us on?”

“Actually, I've been trying to squeeze some tips out of your colleague”, said Spirou. “But all I'm getting is abstract philosophical remarks.” Haru had moved to the nearest starting block; since Spirou had someone else to talk to, he could have a swim.

“Don't resist the water”, he repeated. “It's perfectly clear.” Then he jumped in, leaving Makoto to confirm: “yep, that's Haru's advice right there.”

Nagisa and Rei walked in in close sequence, performing a few stretches, and Gou joined them from the ladies' side of the changing area. When she saw Spirou, she let out an indiscreet gasp.

“Damn! Will you look at those deltoids?!”, she squealed, covering her mouth both in astonishment and in order to avoid arousing suspicion. “I hadn't imagined because motor racers are always wearing those big overalls... This was a fantastic dare after all!” Spirou was a visibly fit, balanced man. Not as broad-chested as Makoto, who he was talking to, Gou placed his stature somewhere in between Nagisa and Haru. Also, his legs weren't as slender as the swimmers. Nagisa quickly surveyed the body of the champion racer: he guessed that those feet could pack quite a punch on the pedals, and those shoulders, which Gou had pointed out, were solid to support arms stretched out to hold the steering wheel for hours on end.

“I'd say he's on the slim side for your taste, Gou-chan”, Nagisa judged.

“More to the point, he's 32”, said Rei, unimpressed.

“Yeah, so do you know what that means?”, Gou asked.

“It means that he's too old for you”, Rei answered adamantly. “Easiest relationship question ever”, he thought, but Gou had other ideas.

“It means that you boys can be that toned in ten years' time! Keep up the swimming and I should stick around!”

With that, she wandered off to jump into the pool, leaving the other two dumbfoundedly looking at each other, frozen in their respective stretch poses.

Nearby, Makoto's chat with Spirou was interrupted by the local children.

“Tachibana-kochi!”, they called, gathering around their part-time coach. “Are you going to make us swim a relay today, Tachibana-kochi?”, one asked. Makoto laughed and kneeled down to their level.

“I'm not wearing the right suit for that”, he explained. “This is my personal swimsuit. I'm the one swimming a relay today, with my friends against visitors from Europe!”

“ _Hai_! We'll be cheering you on, Tachibana-kochi!”, the chorus of boys and girls answered. Spirou was touched by the scene, even if the conversation was in Japanese. He could tell that Makoto was excellent at working with children. The sweet moment was cut short for the ginger-haired man by a loud splash and complaint from the pool.

“ _Le dos, nom d'une pipe_!”, Fantasio growled. “This is killing me. Why am I swimming this stroke?”

“Same reason I'm doing breast, mate”, Spirou replied, helping his colleague out of the water. “You want to see Haru swim his best too, right?”

“Yeah, which is why we've put him against Seccotine, our own record-pace-setting freestyle swimmer!”, the older of the two continued, sarcastically. Spirou looked towards the entrance.

“No, that's why we've invited _him_.”

“RIN-CHAN!”, Nagisa yelled, prompting his team-mates to instantly stop whatever they were doing and take notice of the arriving cohort.

“What are they all doing here?”, Makoto whispered. Rin, Sosuke, Ai and Momo were all there, in their black and silver competition suits, and the mood changed from carefree and light to serious.

“Why?”, Makoto asked Spirou, whose smirk gave away the fact that he was behind the surprise.

“I figured you could use some proper opposition”, he grinned, then moved forward. “Hey Rin! Great to see you, thanks for coming. I guess we can get started!” The red-haired man snapped the back of his goggle strap as he usually did before an important meet, and shook his head. He stepped onto the block next to him, bent over and looked out to the other side of the pool, where a familiar face was waiting.

“No way I'm facing Haru without warming up properly!”, he stated, then dived in. Spirou's satisfaction grew. He'd made a great decision by inviting the Samezuka drivers: this was going to be a very exciting relay.

It was another quarter of an hour before the teams stood on the tiles, ready to start the contest: a repeat of Team Shark vs Team Dolphin, in their usual configurations, with Team Squirrel thrown into the mix. The new squad lined up as follows: Fantasio, in brightly coloured trunks not dissimilar to the ones Nagisa had once lent Rei, would open with backstroke; Spirou, in plain red shorts, was due to swim breaststroke; Zorglub, an imposing man wearing a psychedelic full-body costume Goro Sasabe wouldn't shy away from, was next for the butterfly leg; and Seccotine, in a straight-forward one-piece suit, would end the relay swimming free. Despite Fantasio suggesting that she had no chance against Haru and Rin, she was still a fit woman in her mid-thirties. A field journalist and a capable racer too, she was visibly more athletic than Gou.

Next to them, the two rival quartets exchanged their fighting talk.

 

“I'll show you how fast Olympic training makes you!”, Momotaro boasted, reminding Makoto that he was following a high-performance regimen. It didn't faze his opponent.

“I think you'll be surprised at how fast you have to swim to be allowed to train the kids!”, Makoto laughed.

 

“We won't lose this time, Nagisa-kun”, Aiichiro warned confidently. “And I will do my part.”

“You've got more confident with time, Ai-chan”, Nagisa replied. “I like that.”

 

“This is my first time swimming butterfly again since those Regionals”, Sosuke remarked.

“Well, forgive me if I don't wait for you”, said Rei.

“Don't worry, I wasn't planning on waiting for you either.”

 

“I only swim fast”, Haru told Rin, who raised an eyebrow at the comment.

“You're getting your sports mixed up, am I right?”, he asked.

“'Fast' and 'free' are not mutually exclusive”, Haru noted.

“Yeah... Although, of late, I've only swum free against you”, Rin confessed. Haru turned his head with surprise, and noticed that Rin's eyes did betray some emotion despite his otherwise stern, focused look.

Haru would have to wait for an explanation for Rin's words, as Goro blew his whistle to call the relayers to attention. Makoto, Fantasio and Momo jumped in and got ready to start their 100 metres. From a few lanes across, the children encouraged Makoto as they said they would, while Gou stayed silent – she didn't mind who of her team or her brother's won this encounter. The noise died down when Goro raised his hand.

“ _Y_ _O_ _-I_ _!_ ”, he shouted. After a few seconds, the whistle blew, the race began, and the children started cheering again.

Makoto's timing was fine, but the power Momo had in his legs was more impressive than ever. His stroke had improved too, so the higher standards meant that Makoto couldn't keep up. He had still been right about his own abilities, because he wasn't being humiliated. He was producing a huge effort, but the gap increased steadily. Fantasio, meanwhile, had a slow getaway, and backstroke was clearly not his favourite. Spirou was yelling at the top of his lungs to get his team-mate to accelerate...

“If he takes forever, I won't see Haru swim...”, he thought.

Momo touched first, sending Ai on his way, and Makoto handed over to Nagisa a few seconds later. The two were evenly matched, and there was no evolution in the difference.

“Haruka and Rin will be close too... It's going to be up to me to close the gap to Sosuke”, Rei observed as he stepped onto the block. “But what form is he really in?”

However, Spirou's pace shocked the onlookers. “I wasn't too shabby a swimmer myself”, he had proclaimed on the very first evening he had spoken to the Iwatobi boys, and he was showing that he still had plenty in him. Neither of his opponents were competitive swimmers any more, they now swam for leisure and to stay in shape. Their rivalry spurred them on, but Spirou's determination was stronger, and he managed to recover some time.

Sosuke was the first butterfly swimmer to jump in. Rei didn't look at his rhythm as he got going; he focused on his exchange with Nagisa. He dived in clinging on to the notion that Team Dolphin's chances of victory hinged on him reducing Team Shark's advantage and handing momentum to Haru. It was something he hadn't succeeded in doing in his high school years, he was too inexperienced, and Rin and Sosuke were too fast. But, although he was facing a tamer Sosuke than back then, it wasn't enough. As the tall, dark-haired man pushed himself as hard as he dared, the two were actually even.

On the sidelines, Fantasio pulled a satisfied, panting Spirou out of the water. Zorglub's stroke was a flamboyant, exaggerated and ineffective thrashing, so whatever challenge the Europeans had hoped to put up was over. Their place in the contest wasn't the point however.

“You did well”, Fantasio congratulated.

“Thanks”, Spirou replied. He turned to watch Haru and Rin get into position. “Now, it's time for the fireworks.”

“RIN!”, Sosuke yelled while catching his breath after his stint. Rin promptly leapt from the board and started his swim with a head start on Haru. Because he had concentrated on his butterfly throughout the year, he didn't know how much of his lead would remain at the end. Ai was as confident as ever that his _senpai_ would win though.

“HARUKA!”, came another shout from the pool. Rei once again had the privilege of seeing Haru fly over his head in slow motion. This was also the moment that Spirou had been waiting for. His pensive stance turned to awe when faced with the grace of Haru's entry into the water, and the ease with which he seemed to move forward.

“That's some damn fast crawl”, Fantasio observed. Spirou compared it with Rin's.

“Yeah, it's seamless”, he added. “Matsuoka looks like he's putting more effort into it... but he's not slow either.”

The pair didn't notice Zorglub finally touching the wall and Seccotine diving in. Like all the spectators, they were engrossed with the ongoing duel.

“Haruka's catching up”, Rei estimated, only to witness the gap opening back up again after the turn. “Rin's kick is still stronger!”

“COME ON, HARU!”, “COME ON, RIN!”, the two teams competed while their fastest relayers swam the last 50 metres. Once again, Haru's stroke allowed him to get closer, but the advantage Momotaro had opened early on proved decisive. Rin touched the wall, and turned to see Haru arriving while he caught his breath. Realising the result, he punched the air with delight and energetically extracted himself from the water, convening a hug with his team-mates. They had scored a relatively easy, but significant win: it was the first time Rin, Sosuke, Ai and Momo had defeated the Iwatobi quartet together, and they congratulated each other jubilantly. After a treacherous season for the relationships among them, notably regarding Momo's place on the motor racing team, the four had bonded once again. Sosuke felt particularly satisfied; unbeknownst to some of the others, he was going to take over Seijuro's role, and after this, he knew he would do it with everyone in high spirits. “The third season is going to be awesome!”, he thought, with a wide grin on his face.

Meanwhile, Makoto offered his hand to Haru to help him out of the pool. There were smiles at Team Dolphin too, which surprised a mildly disappointed Haru.

“I wasn't fast enough”, he apologised.

“It's ok, Haruka-senpai”, said Rei, who knew he didn't have to refer to his friend that way. But it caused a flashback for Haru. Still recovering from the effort, he saw himself with the other three in the sunshine, beside the pool at Iwatobi High. Rei spoke the words Haru had said at Suzuka, “a relay with you is never a small event”, and invited the other three to huddle. The result wasn't an issue. After all, they had only one Olympic hopeful as opposed to two, so it was perhaps logical that Team Shark won this time. But Haru, Makoto, Nagisa and Rei had relived the pleasure of swimming together against their old rivals.

“What about us? Do I get a hug?”, Seccotine cheekily asked Spirou after finishing her team's race a pool length behind. The Belgian just let out a brief chuckle. He was moved by the scene in front of him.

“There _is_ something about these guys”, he thought. “Somehow, I always knew... How am I going to write about this?”


	32. We will meet again

Rin and Haru sat in the park next to the pool, in front of a cherry tree with only a few red-brown leaves left on it. Relaxing after a couple of hours in the water, Rin reclined, his arms behind his head, whereas Haru sat forward. Sure that they were alone, the dark-haired man asked his question straight up.

“Rin, what did you mean when you said that you only swim free against me?” Haru knew that Rin exclusively swam butterfly in competition now, since they had raced separately at the Worlds that Summer. But the faint glimmer in Rin's eye had told him that the meaning of the word “free” ran deeper than just describing a stroke.

“Oh, it's just that, after the International University Tournament two years ago, my trainer in Australia insisted that I concentrate on butterfly”, Rin explained. “He thought that, because I had won that event more easily, I stood better a chance. However... it's not going to plan. There's something... _someone_ we missed.”

“Mikoshiba”, Haru guessed. Rin nodded in reply, letting his arms drop beside him. “He's always looked strong when I've seen him at our joint practices.”

“He _is_ strong”, Rin confirmed. “Fast, incredibly energetic and motivated. I wish I had paid more attention to him when we swam together in high school. It's the fact that I'm struggling to surpass him that's making me regret stopping freestyle.”

“You could still enter free races, right?”, Haru asked. Rin shrugged his shoulders and leant forward to mirror Haru's posture.

“My trainer probably won't put me down for them”, he resumed. “Man, I miss the freestyle... and I miss facing you at freestyle.”

“I... I also felt something was missing at the Worlds”, Haru confessed shortly after. Although he did so rather awkwardly, both boys had massively improved when it came to expressing their feelings. Long gone were the days when they could worry to no end about things that went unsaid. Still, Haru went no further, even if he was recalling what he felt after the Worlds, at Le Mans, when he saw the Mazda qualify just ahead of him: if Rin was going to start that car, he wanted to race him. He discreetly peeked to his left.

“It's too late to change our plans now”, Rin said with evident disappointment, but he seemed to lighten up immediately afterwards. “For these Olympics, that is.” An ambitious smile returned to his face, and his head lifted back up, his eyes staring dead ahead and his drying hair floating in the breeze. To Haru, it was reminiscent of the optimistic and confident resolve Rin showed as a child.

“I intend to change things after Rio”, he announced. “I'm going to come back to Japan and find a trainer who will help me succeed in the styles I want: butter _and_ free! I'm also thinking of getting an agent.”

“An agent?!”, Haru gasped.

“Yeah! Someone to manage my contracts, arrange my appointments with sponsors and stuff...”, Rin replied seriously.

“I don't like agents”, Haru groaned.

“You don't like contracts or sponsors either!”, Rin grinned.

“Lawyers, agents, sponsors, the lot of them... They're like sharks...”

Rin laughed out loud at the comment.

“Yeah, I thought you'd enjoy me mentioning that”, he said when he had caught his breath. “Anyway, I'm looking for a very special collaborator. Someone I can really trust...”

“Can you honestly trust anyone in that business?”, Haru asked rhetorically.

“I trust Sosuke”, Rin answered, still grinning, making Haru's eyes open wide. “I'm going to ask Sosuke to be my agent!”

Haru was baffled. Could one just call up a friend to manage one's legal business? Was it that simple? He had to ask.

“So... I trust Makoto...”, he began, but Rin interrupted him by laughing.

“Yeah, I trust Makoto too – if I need someone to babysit my kids! But Makoto's not shrewd enough to be an agent! Whereas Sosuke has already done some negotiating on my behalf with Mazda, while I've been in Australia.” A slight smile returned to Haru's face.

“It's good to see you know where you want to be”, he sighed, reassured.

“And what about you, Haru?”, Rin asked with a hint of concern.

“I only swim free”, was the short, matter-of-fact answer. He was just going to continue to do what he had to do. “My only alternative would be the relay”, he added. Rin's face lit up again.

“Hell yeah, we should try to build a freestyle relay team!”, he beamed.

“That, or medley”, Haru responded. “Actually, I've been seeing a former middle-school team-mate of mine, a breaststroke swimmer...”

“Oh man!”, Rin interrupted enthusiastically. “With Momo on backstroke and my butterfly, we'd have a full set! Haru, that's a perfect idea, you're a genius!” Even though Rin had the ambition and Haru had the ability to aim for great individual performances, both thrived on the notion that they were part of a team. Secretly, they would dream of swimming a competition relay together again. For the first time in years, there was an embryo of a plan to make that happen.

 

Rin wanted to hug Haru to celebrate the idea, but the latter's phone butted in.

“It's Makoto. The others are getting impatient... We should head back.” Haru stood and picked up his bag. “Man, I thought I'd never shake the journalist”, he continued as the pair started walking.

“Oh yeah, I forgot how much you love interviews too”, Rin laughed.

“Technically, he's only my guest... but he does ask a lot of questions”, Haru said back with a light smile as he thought of something else. “You said Makoto wasn't very shrewd, but, you know, he came up with a clever plan earlier: he told all the children to go up to Spirou outside the pool, asking for autographs! It kept him busy for a while... but obviously the kids have left now.”

Indeed, when Haru and Rin reached the swimming club building, the car park was largely empty. It was just the three teams and Goro.

“Ah, the love birds are finally back!”, Nagisa winked.

“That's a bit cheeky, don't you think?”, Rin replied, “Calling us love birds when you're the one after a girlfriend...” Nagisa straightened his back and opened his eyes wide with shock. There were a few nervous laughs around him.

“Who told you that?!”, he snapped, before turning to the first person he had talked about that subject with. “REI-CHAAAN!” He swung his backpack at him, waist-high. Rei dodged it, and started running.

“No, Nagisa-kun! I didn't tell him!”, he defended himself, chased around the parking lot by a red-faced Nagisa.

“The next person who finds out, I swear I'm spreading the rumour around the paddock that you have a shrine to Yui Hirasawa in your bedroom!”, the blond boy warned when he stopped, because his friend ran so much faster than him.

The others were amused, though Makoto felt some compassion; Nagisa wasn't used to being teased like that by his friends. But there was another question on his mind. If there was no reason to doubt that Rei was being honest when he said he hadn't told Rin, and if he hadn't himself, then who had? Looking around, it seemed to him that Gou's giggle was rather _knowing_. It sometimes bothered Makoto to wonder what kind of anecdotes she told her brother. He trusted her to not reveal anything sensitive, but it was quite possible that she had given away many details about the after-podium party in the motorhome at Suzuka...

Nearby, Spirou tried to extract some information out of Haru.

“So what did you two go away to talk about?”, he asked.

“You'll find out when it happens”, Haru replied cryptically. Spirou chuckled. It really wasn't easy to make his racing adversary talk.

“You know, you're a race winner now, so you'll get a few more solicitations for interviews”, he explained. As the Nagisa situation calmed down, Makoto turned to the conversation. “You can't evade questions all the time!”, Spirou continued, trying to get his way. “So how about next season? Are you coming back?” After a brief pause and noticing that Makoto was listening, Haru grinned mischievously.

“You'll find out when it happens”, he repeated, and his childhood friend returned a smile.

“How about you, Spirou-san?”, Makoto asked. “I guess you're aiming to win the Trophy.”

“It would sure be nice to place well in that!”, the Belgian replied. “But it'll be hard. We're only doing five rounds, Europe and Japan, so we have no room for error, because we'll have no drop scores.” The rules stated that Le Mans (double points) plus the best four other results would count for the year-long championship; the teams who planned to do all seven races therefore had the comfort of knowing that a bad day or two wouldn't impact their chances.

“So you're not going to Australia”, Rin intervened. The 1000-kilometre race in his second home country was an event he was eagerly anticipating.

“Yeah, Bathurst looks cool, but we always stop at five races in the AERS. Besides, we'll be busy with a desert rally in March.” There was an exclamation of awe from Makoto and Nagisa.

“Is that the kind of race where you drive over sand dunes?”, the latter asked.

“Yep, it's very different to circuit racing. There's a very important navigation element in it.”

“So it's not for Sosuke”, Rin muttered.

“Actually, Team Kanto are also doing that rally”, Spirou continued. “We fought with them a lot in the LM P1 days. It's funny how you can't shake some rivals...”

That final remark caught the attention of Haru and Rin. It was precisely what they had just talked about. They exchanged a complicit glance, which Makoto caught sight of. That was enough for him to read into their thoughts and understand what had been said moments earlier: Rin and Haru wanted to swim together again soon.

 

***

_Journal Spirou / Jeudi 26 Novembre 2016 / Sport-Reportage_

**A DAY WITH THE MAN WHO BEAT ME**

_by Spirou_

_On Monday, we wrote our report on the race in Japan. As usual, we did that while travelling away from Suzuka, but our destination was not an airport as it would normally have been: we were on the train to a small port on the opposite coast of the island of Honshu. Iwatobi-cho, the “town of rockhopper penguins”, will sound familiar to followers of the AERS, since it lends its name to a team of locals which got its first win last weekend. And it's remarkable that such a remote, tranquil place harbours not one, but several world-class sporting talents._

We are the guests of Haru Nanase, a man who has raced me personally twice in the last fifteen months. We knew the quick and precise driver, but, after Sunday's result, we have a chance to see a different side of him. Away from the track, in his home on the hills of Iwatobi-cho and with a breathtaking view of the Sea of Japan, Haru's reserved nature, which can come over as cold and closed in a bustling racing paddock, radiates a warm, serene hospitality in sync with the surroundings here. There is no mistake: this is his home, his element, the place he knows the best and where he can roam freely and leads an independent life. “ _My parents travel a lot for work_ ”, he explains after serving us some fried fish for breakfast. “ _Most often, I have the house to myself. It's been that way since high school. I don't mind it. But of course, now I'm not here much either._ ” Indeed, Haru is quickly becoming one of Japan's top swimmers, and he trains in Tokyo. Coming back to Iwatobi-cho is nonetheless important for him. “ _Here, I can connect with the ocean. Whenever I can catch a break in the Summer, I come here to swim in the sea. Right now, it's too cold though._ ” That's all he tells us. Even in his lair, Haru is very secretive.

The morning is spent walking along the waterfront, and up to a vantage point where we meet other members of his victorious team: Nagisa Hazuki, the rapid starting driver, Rei Ryugazaki, the calculating race engineer, and Gou Matsuoka, the sharp team manager. They are more prompt to tell us about the town, share memories of certain places, and even tell us more about Haru [see insert]. One man is missing though. Makoto Tachibana, the third driver, team founder and Haru's longest acquaintance, is busy writing a column for the local newspaper. Fantasio and I know how much work that is! In spite of its charm, Iwatobi-cho is not a tourist resort, but a working town. There are no yachts in the bay, but small to medium-sized fishing boats. There are few restaurants, and we stop for lunch in one of them. They serve fish, of course, and the sashimi is the best we've ever tasted. “ _That's because it can't be any fresher_ ”, Nagisa remarks, “ _it probably arrived this morning._ ”

The other three head back up the coast to fetch Makoto, while Haru takes us through the in-land part of town, which is more functional. We waste no time in front of buildings, he is eager to get to the pool. So eager in fact, that by the time we've changed, he's already in the water and warmed up. Perhaps more than his house in the hills, the water is his true home. Goro Sasabe, the owner of the club with a stand-out hairstyle, and a former coach of Haru's, confirms that the young man's passion for swimming runs deep. “ _I have never known him otherwise. Only Makoto would know what he was like before coming to the pool,_ _and he was the one who first brought him here._ ” But Haru is not alone in having left an impression on the extravagant trainer. “ _We had a bit of a golden generation here around ten years ago: Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin, they swam together and each one was brilliant._ ” Rin is Rin Matsuoka, who races in the AERS for Mazda, with a best result of third in America this season. But most importantly, Rin is a swimmer capable of rivalling Haru. They had a duel in an international tournament a year ago, and I learn from Goro that their competition has been going on for a long time. “ _There's already a lot of history between those two, as kids, inside these very walls_ ”, he says. I smile, realising what a good idea it was to invite his team to the pool.

For we are not here only to get our feet wet. We, that is Fantasio, Seccotine, Zorglub and myself, are here to compete against the strongest medley relay line-ups of the region from two years ago, and Samezuka's quartet is here to make sure the Iwatobi boys get a run for their money. The two teams warm up in professional style; Rin, in particular, is leaving nothing to chance, and I can sense that my hosts are fired up by the challenge. The contest begins. We are swimming seriously, but where we are situated in comparison with the others is not my concern. I want to witness Rin versus Haru first hand. As their turn in the relay arrives, I sense the pool hold its breath. Rin jumps: he leaps forward with immense power. He fights to dominate the water. Haru dives a moment later – his team is behind. Yet, this doesn't affect him in any way. He takes things easy, or so it seems, for the looks are deceptive. His style may be incredibly fluid, he is in fact travelling very fast. To watch him close in on Rin despite appearing to make half the effort, is hypnotic. Then, at the turn, the illusion snaps: Rin's kick is once again superior. As he normally swims butterfly, he is counting on this to help him maintain the advantage, and, ultimately, he wins. It wasn't as close as we would have liked, but neither gave the other an inch, and we certainly saw a difference in styles, one of the things that make this duel so fascinating.

And it's not just the way these two 20-year-olds push each other that stands out, there's also the support of their respective team-mates. Haru is disappointed that his team has lost (although, to be honest, Iwatobi beat our team very convincingly), but his friends still congratulate him. Very soon, all eight boys return into the water, put the race behind them and enjoy themselves. “ _We've held joint practices when travelling_ ”, Nagisa tells me with a huge smile. “ _It's good for our form and we really enjoy the company of the Samezuka team._ ” Aiichiro Nitori, Nagisa's breaststroke adversary, agrees. “ _It also allows us to compare and perfect our physical preparations. It may sound strange, but there's no room for foul play: it's in our interest to have strong opponents!_ ”

After the fun at the pool, we return to Haru's house for dinner with the Iwatobi team. It's mackerel, delicious and well-prepared – but mackerel again. Three meals in one day with fish is a lot. Likewise, I have made numerous more or less subtle attempts to get an answer from the boys about their future. I ask again, “ _what's next for you?_ ” – implicitly, what's next in terms of motor racing –, but the reply is “ _we're going back to our universities tomorrow_ ”. Will they be in Bathurst or Spa next Spring? Have they even decided if they're stopping or continuing? The secret is well-kept by this gang of close friends. But should they return to the AERS, one thing is sure: we'll be there to race them as hard as anyone.

**INSERT: Haru by others.**

“ _Everything he does is done with remarkable fluency and grace, and he does it all by instinct. To me, he's an inspiration._ ” Rei Ryugazaki, lives in Tokyo, studying physics

“ _He's built to perform, he has talent and works hard. He loves swimming so much that it's not hard to get him training!_ ” Gou Matsuoka, lives in Tokyo, studying sports management

“ _He says he doesn't care about rivalries, but I doubt it. Against Rin or you, Spirou, he always gives it extra!_ ” Nagisa Hazuki, lives in Tottori, studying life sciences

“ _Since elementary school, he's always been a monster at swimming. I never underestimate him._ ” Rin Matsuoka, lives in Sydney, aspiring Olympic swimmer

“ _He's simply the sweetest guy I know. Sure, he's shy and reserved, but he's also got a really caring side._ ” Makoto Tachibana, lives in Tokyo, training to become a P.E. teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final pause before the final push. Find out in a few weeks' time what the future holds for everyone!  
> BTW I've not seen _Free! Starting Days_ , so I don't know how believable Ikuya's presence at top level swimming is with respect to how he ends the film.


	33. Duel Down Under!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the final sequence of the series! We take a peek at the 2016 season here, as Rin faces his biggest challenge yet on his "second home track": Bathurst, Australia! An onboard lap is up [on the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/149803671446/final-onboard-video-to-go-with-the-fiction-the), where you can, as ever, [ask questions](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/ask) or [make requests](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/post/148054405486/the-future-of-faster)!  
> Some [bonus factoids](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/tagged/bonus_trivia) are going up on the blog as well, more to come at we approach the future...

**Sunday 20 th March 2016**

_Live commentary transcript of the closing laps of the AERS Bathurst 1000 km._

-The battle for the final podium position goes into the final corner; it was nose-to-tail through the Chase, Matsuoka is under enormous pressure! He's going defensive on the home straight... Two laps to go! These are going to be the two longest laps of Rin's life, the guy behind can attack at any time! It's going to feel like a long wait for his supporters in the crowd too, the “Go Team Shark” banner still flies for now. Over the crest, Rin's in the middle-left of the road, not enough room to the left, going to the right would be too deep at Griffins: this is masterful defending from the 21-year-old! He's putting his car right where it needs to be.

-Yes, this is brilliant. I'd just like to point out that the battle for third in X2 is less than ten seconds up the road, so these two fights are going to collide on the final lap, it should be interesting.

-Rin once again does the right thing, covering the deep line in to the Cutting, and now the mountain section of the track. That's Chrysler territory because the steep hills mean that you need the power, but there's just no room to make a pass! You mentioned the traffic, Paul, that's very interesting: it means we've got Matsuoka under maximum pressure from behind, going into a group of slow cars, which are fighting amongst themselves... Plenty of room for a mistake in this situation and the wall is never far at Mount Panorama Circuit, particularly through here. What a last lap we're in for, unless Hazuki tries something before that, like HERE AT SKYLINE! Ooh, that was not going to work, Nagisa! Matsuoka shuts the door as the cars roll downhill. Heart attacks on pit wall, I can guarantee that won't be the last of those! Even Sosuke Yamazaki struggled to keep a straight face there. Hazuki is getting desperate, he's been watching Matsuoka's defence, he knows he's got the best overtaking spots covered. Now they're on Conrod Straight. Once again, Matsuoka, aware he doesn't have a top speed advantage, places himself on the road so that Hazuki can't get around the outside, and the inside is not an option because that puts him on the outside at the braking point for the Chase. The tricks in the book aren't going to work, Hazuki's going to have to invent new ones! You see him weaving in avoidance as Matsuoka lifts off the throttle just that little bit earlier for the chicane! He's frustrating Hazuki! This is what happens in a hard battle like this, don't think that all the pressure is on the defendant, because the attacker gets frustrated and can make a mistake of his own! Final lap, by the way, the leader is already heading up the mountain, Virgil Tracy should win this race for Ford, Hinata Hyuuga is second for McLaren, and the fact that that second place is safe is why we have this exciting duel for third between Rin Matsuoka and Nagisa Hazuki. There's a similar situation in X2, and that battle for third is what these two have caught up with. Accelerating up the hill, heading for Griffins, the slow cars aren't going to move over before the twisty section, they're in a race of their own! Matsuoka and Hazuki pass the 53 and the 51 will probably move aside, but DOESN'T! He cuts Hazuki off! What a disaster for the Iwatobi Racing Team! Rei Ryugazaki can't believe it, and Hazuki is flashing furiously at Fred Flintstone, who moves over in the run up to the Cutting, but the damage is done, he's lost the best part of a second... over a second to Matsuoka and still got the Alfa to pass. Wow! We expected a dramatic final lap, well there you have it: Rin Matsuoka has been let off the hook by the backmarkers!

-That's the thing with traffic, though, it can go either way, and this time it went against the attacker. Meanwhile, near the end of the lap already, we have Virgil and Alan Tracy coasting down Conrod Straight. Virgil's lead is so big, he can actually afford to slow down to be with his brother for the finish.

-And what a day it is for the Tracy family: an unprecedented double victory, winning both classes. And the venerable GT90 – “Grandma”, they call it! it's a 1994 design that won't be around next year! – is going to get a fantastic send-off. Through the final corner, the flag is ready and waiting: 161 laps in the book, International Racing Ford wins the first Australian Animated Endurance race, overall AND in X2! Virgil, Scott and Gordon Tracy in the #11, John, Alan and Tin Tin in the #55, father and team boss Jeff on pit wall, they are rightly absolutely delighted. Alpine and McLaren will get second in their respective classes, and for third, we wait to see.

-The last split suggests the gap's closed up between Matsuoka and Hazuki.

-Here they are, and Hazuki's caught right back up to Matsuoka! What happened there? Is the Mazda out of fuel?! I can't imagine that, it would be a heartbreaking twist! Matsuoka seems to be going normally on Conrod Straight, but Hazuki's got the chance to do something before the finish line and here he goes: he chooses the outside for the fast right-hander, he pulls out and THEY TOUCH! Hazuki, two wheels on the grass, tries to hold on and brakes as late as he dares, but that's too deep! HE RUNS INTO MATSUOKA! They tap again as they both desperately try to make the corner! Is anyone damaged? Rin Matsuoka has kept going and kept the position! He leads Hazuki into the final corner, where he goes as deep as possible to cover the inside. Hazuki's going to carry the momentum though, can he beat Matsuoka to the line? No! The Mazda cuts him off AND HOLDS ON! MATSUOKA HOLDS ON! Huge breath of relief at Samezuka, because that was an intense final couple of corners! Meanwhile, dejection at Iwatobi... What a finish!

-I think Hazuki's got a bit of damage to the front-right, like a dive plane missing... That was a desperado move by Hazuki into the Chase on that last lap. He tried to force the issue, went clattering into Matsuoka; I suspect the stewards will have a look at that. Meanwhile, third in X2 goes to Animaniacs Racing, third in class for the third race running, only this time, they are the factory-backed Alfa Romeo team. Not a bad start to the season though, still better than Team Rocket who they've replaced.

-Ford, McLaren and Mazda are the top three in X1; it's Ford, Alpine and Alfa Romeo in X2. And in pit lane, Bruce is with a very happy Jeff Tracy.

-Jeff, the last time TB1 won a race, it was an Aston Martin, over half a decade ago!

- _Yeah, Silverstone 2009! It's been a really long wait, but we've done it again! And to win in both classes at the same time is incredible. The boys and Tin Tin were excellent, they had the pace on track, our guys in the pits had the pace off it... Just perfection across the board, I'm proud of the whole team._

-It's not every day we see such a gap at the front, you guys seemed to have it easy in the last third of the race!

- _Well, you can manage your pace at the end only if you've put the effort in beforehand, and getting to that situation wasn't easy. In the 11, Gordon had to fight with Haru Nanase at the start, and he won the previous race, so he's a tough opponent. Then, the leaders pushed each other out, and Scott and Virgil drove at amazing speed to get the win. For the 55, X2 is a really competitive class, and the development work we've done on the Visos, in conjunction with the Weasel team is paying off. Pity they didn't make it, but let's hope this is a good sign and we can continue to take the fight to the Alfas, Alpines and company for the rest of the season!_

-One last question. Winning both classes, are you going up to the podium twice?

- _Haha! No, Brains will do one of them! He deserves a share of the Champagne too!_

-Jeff Tracy, thank you very much, and congratulations!

-Thank you, Bruce. It's handy having a team win both classes, because we only need to interview one team principal! Joe, meanwhile, is further up pit lane, at... either Iwatobi or Samezuka?

-I'm with Rei Ryugazaki, race engineer for the Iwatobi Racing Team. Rei, you're obviously disappointed with fourth place. Tell us about that last lap: a move in the last corner, but could Hazuki have done it earlier if he hadn't hit the traffic?

- _Yeah, the traffic was bad on the last lap, but I doubt it made a difference. What's important to examine, I think, is Rin's defence. It was pretty hard and fair most of the time, but in the chicane, on the last lap, I think he went beyond what's acceptable. He seemed to change his mind about how to take the corner, only Nagisa-kun had claimed the inside, so he got turned into! We're going to review that move when Nagisa-kun gets back._

-Thank you, Rei. Guys, this is quite interesting, I'm going to grab Seijuro Mikoshiba if I can...

-Go ahead, Joe. Well, Rei Ryugazaki says Matsuoka turned into Hazuki... He's defending his driver, which is fair enough, but we didn't see the same thing, did we, Paul?

-No. We've had some replays while those interviews were being done, and I still think Hazuki made an over-optimistic dive for it. It does seem that Matsuoka left the door open, but had he taken the normal line, he would have been tagged into a spin because of where Hazuki was. So why was Matsuoka a bit wide? Mistake?

-Bait? That's Ryugazaki's theory...

-I don't know, but the irony is that going wide probably saved his position.

-Joe has someone from Samezuka, let's hear their side of the story.

-Seijuro Mikoshiba, it's a podium for the moment for you guys, but some people at Iwatobi are questioning what happened in the chicane on the last lap.

- _Well, we have questions too! Matsuoka was very lucky to survive that crazy attack from Hazuki. But in the end, we held on to third, we start the season with a podium, so we can celebrate instead of dwelling on that!_

-Thank you, Seijuro, and congrats, that was a hard-fought result.

-Thanks, Joe. And the debate will go on a bit as to who hit whom... The fans will probably bombard us with messages saying “it was Hazuki” or “it was Matsuoka”...

-I'm going to say “it was Hazuki”... You can't blame him for giving it a go in the last corner of the last lap of the race with a podium at stake, but it wasn't pretty.

-It was just hard racing really, as expected, as you say, when a top position is at stake. All these considerations, of course, are of no concern to International Racing, since they were on the opposite side of the circuit when it happened! But here they are, the number 11 GT90 and the number 55 Visos are in parc fermé, Virgil and Alan Tracy are out of the cars and everyone is just elated. Quite literally, the whole team has won today, neither side of the garage has been left out... It's a total victory, and of course, the perfect start to the championship! The AERS has an official championship this year, for the first time, and International Racing Ford will start with 25 points in both classes. In X1, Team7 McLaren will have 18 points, Samezuka Mazda 15, Iwatobi Racing Team 12, and so on...

-The talking point on that front, I think, is going to be the collision between the Team Rocket Maserati and the number 4 Veritas, because PPR is not taking part in the Trophy, whereas Team Rocket is, so they leave Australia with “nul points” after that accident involving a non-Trophy car.

-That said, there are two drop scores over the course of the season, so if Team Rocket enter all the remaining rounds, they still have all their chances. The Mazda has returned to pit lane, and we just saw a cheeky moment from Rin Matsuoka: he got out of the car, went to inspect the front-left wing where Hazuki hit him, and seemed to flick something off the wheel guard!

-Blue paint!

-Haha, perhaps! If that's the case, I would have left it there personally; you want your car to be as heavy as possible for the weighbridge, but never mind!

-Second podium for Samezuka, of course, their first was at Laguna Seca last year, but it's actually the first for Sosuke Yamazaki, who's looking the happiest we've ever seen.

-And Rin Matsuoka is really enjoying this! He lives in Australia nowadays, so this is like a home race to him. Team7 were third in Suzuka last time out, but I wonder, when was the last time International Racing were on the podium? It wasn't 2009, was it?

-No, they got some results with Aston Martin in GTE, so their last podium was 2012 or 2013. But no wins, if I remember correctly. Also, Team7 isn't called Team7 any more.

-Yes, I remembered that upon seeing the provisional classification on screen: they are McLaren TLM Hokage this year, while they wear number 1. The results are provisional pending whether or not someone complains about the last-lap incident, but for now, Matsuoka, Yamazaki and Nitori are third for Mazda, behind the McLaren TLM Hokage team, and the Ford GT90 of Virgil, Scott and Gordon Tracy...

***

**AERS BATHURST 1000 KILOMETRES - FINAL CLASSIFICATION**

Started: 27 (16 X1, 11 X2) / Classified: 22 (13 X1, 9 X2)

1\. International Racing TB1 - #11 Ford GT90 - S.Tracy/V.Tracy/G.Tracy - 161 LAPS

2\. McLaren TLM Hokage - #1 McLaren X-1 - N.Uzumaki/S.Haruno/H.Hyuuga - +0'32"410

3\. Samezuka Academy Mazdaspeed - #22 Mazda Furai - R.Matsuoka/S.Yamazaki/A.Nitori - +1'05"612

4\. Iwatobi Racing Team - #17 Chrysler ME Four-Twelve - H.Nanase/M.Tachibana/N.Hazuki - +1'06"044 (last car on lead lap)

...

13\. (1st X2) International Racing TB5 - #55 Ford Visos - J.Tracy/A.Tracy/T-T.Kyrano - 152 LAPS

14\. (2nd X2) Looney Tunes Alpine - #60 Alpine-Renault A110-50 - B.Bunny/D.Duck/P.Pig - +0'23"304

15\. (3rd X2) Animaniacs Alfa Corse - #80 Alfa Romeo TZ3 - Y.Warner/W.Warner/D.Warner - +1'09"280

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Publication dates for the final chapters: Sun 11/09 (ch.34) and Wed 21/09 (ch.35). Stay tuned!


	34. Recalling Final Days

**Monday 27 th March 2017**

The third Iwatobi Town Motor Fest had been a much smaller affair than the previous runnings. Gone were the guest stars and the parade of brutal, loud Experimentals. Also gone was the touring car race through the town. Despite that, the event hadn't been less exciting; the main attraction this time had been a go-kart tournament between the drivers from the local teams on a short track, with a portion going around the swimming pool. The first round was divided into heats with four starters at a time, and finishing positions gave points which set the grid for a riveting final involving everyone. In between heats, races were held for the children, teenagers and adults who wanted to have a go, and once again, Makoto's siblings placed well in their age group.

A new, busy university year on the horizon, and big changes happening in the motor racing programmes too, meant that everyone realised it was going to get harder to all meet up in the port town. The Iwatobi boys felt that the time was right to open the time capsule they had buried by the pool over three years earlier. Gathered near the cherry tree which had its leaves back, but was still a month away from blossoming, the four team-mates kneeled beside the hole in the dusty ground and passed around the notes they had written, smiling, laughing, some even shedding a nostalgic tear as they recalled the powerful moment that was the National Tournament.

Gou and the Samezuka team stood by patiently, although Rin was being nosey. Nagisa giggled, and the tall, red-haired man asked what it was about. He crouched down next to the blond, who folded the letter he was reading.

“You have to wait until we've read them all!”, he commanded. Not discouraged, Rin looked in the other direction and tried to peek at what Makoto was holding. The brown-haired man noticed, but was too kind to push his friend away. He had nearly finished anyway. He had Nagisa's note in his hands, and Rin's eyes widened as he read, then he facepalmed.

“Damn, guys, what did you have for breakfast that morning?”, he mumbled.

“You can talk”, Haru snapped back. “With what you said you saw at Bathurst...”

“Whoa, I want to know what you saw there!”, Nagisa livened up.

“It's none of your business”, Rin replied bashfully.

“But it _is_ my business, Rin-chan! You fought for third with me, remember? I want to know what you were seeing!”

 

_On the Saturday after qualifying, the Mount Panorama Circuit pit lane was open for the spectators, and the drivers sat at tables in front of their garages to sign autographs. Samezuka was no exception, and Rin was diligently going his duty. As he was also a swimmer training in Australia, he was quite popular, and stood quite often to have pictures taken with the fans. It was while he posed with a young couple that he spotted two familiar faces. He looked somewhat distracted, but the visitors didn't mind; they had their photo._

“ _RUSSELL! LORI!”, he shouted as soon as he had the chance, going up to greet them._

“ _Rin! You look great in that race suit!”, said Russell. Rin hugged them both, while being a little lost for words._

“ _My goodness, I had no idea you'd come out here, this is a huge surprise!”, he said with some emotion coming on. He found something to do that would keep it back though. “Oh, you should meet my team-mates. Here are Aiichiro and Sosuke”, he continued, then switched to Japanese to introduce his homestay family (minus the dog) to his friends. A standard conversation was engaged, with Lori asking if the chaps were enjoying Australia, and Russell remarking that it was winter in Japan._

“ _Yeah, it's as cold as hell freezing over!”, Rin laughed._

“ _We've also seen your mate Haru and his team”, Russell went on to say._

“ _Yeah, I guess we can unfurl this now”, Lori added, referring to a banner she was holding. “GO TEAM SHARK”, it read._

“ _We were so excited when we saw you lead the race in Japan, Rin”, Lori explained. “We're behind you all the way!” Heart-warmed by the support, the Samezuka drivers all signed the cloth with immense pleasure._

 

“I looked out for that banner with three to go. Somehow, I guessed it would be the last time”, Rin told the others. He wouldn't admit it, but he had feared an accident that day. Nagisa had established himself as an intimidating, daring, unpredictable racer, and he was ramping up his attacks as the chequered flag drew closer. Rin knew it would only get worse. “Nagisa extends his arms at the end of a race. Anything less than a proper fight would be disappointing for my team, and for Russell and Lori. I had to concentrate on Nagisa. Sure enough, I could sense his presence whenever he pulled out either side of my car. His arms reached out as if to say “I'm going _there_ ”, and I only had a fraction of a second to react or else he'd claim that line. On the last lap, the arm didn't go away after passing the fast right, so I knew I'd have to give him room. I held the middle line best I could, I followed the arms, and it worked!”

“Humph, I didn't get any visions to help me that time”, Nagisa moaned. “They came to me at the Nürburgring though!”

“I'm not surprised, that was a huge performance”, Rin replied, and Haru nodded in agreement. “Worth travelling all that way by yourself for!”

 

_The Iwatobi team had decided to make five starts in 2016, skipping the first two European races, thus the drivers were not due to appear at the Nordschleife Time Trial. But Nagisa was intent on returning: by selling his motorbike, which he hadn't used since entering a tour operating company as a trainee, he got the funds to go to Germany during the Golden Week holiday and enter the individual event which preceded the Nürburgring 1000 km. However, he didn't tell his friends about it, and they got a big surprise when they tuned in to watch the Time Trial. Rei had invited Makoto to his place to watch the live stream, and was fishing some beers out of the fridge when a scream from the lounge alerted him. He walked in to find Makoto pointing at the entry list on screen, with Nagisa's name on it._

 

“I have more mixed feelings about that day”, Rei intervened. “I was shocked that you had done such a thing, but then you won... I didn't know what to think!” Nagisa giggled nervously in response.

“If that wasn't the high point of your season, Rei-chan, what was?”, he asked gingerly. It only took a few seconds before Rei answered.

“I think I'm most proud to be involved in building the new team.”

 

_The thought had played on Rei's mind for the whole week in the run-up to the late September race, which had moved to Imola, Italy. This was his only chance to make his move. It might already have been too late. Amassing all his courage, he asked Jeremy to accompany him out the back of the garage after third free practice, while the mechanics fine-tuned the Chrysler for qualifying. The two leaned against the wall, the blue-haired tactician shyly looking down and with his hands joined on his stomach._

“ _Is something wrong, dude?”, the crew chief asked._

“ _Do you know what you'll be doing next year?”, Rei replied with another question. Jeremy let out a quiet chuckle._

“ _I'm sure I'll get something”, he answered. “Either in the factory squad or another privateer team... I appreciate that you're worried, but I doubt any of us engineers will be out of a job. The twist in the regs is going to keep constructors busy.”_

_Rei separated from the wall and stood straight. His head was still held low._

“ _I've been talking to another team”, he announced sheepishly. “There may be an opportunity to continue if we join forces. It would be a customer team, and we're going to contact potential partners in the coming weeks... Anyway, I wanted to say that it's been a pleasure working with you for these three years. I have learned so much...” He looked up for a short moment, his eyes meeting Jeremy's, then he bowed._

“ _We'd need a technical director. I'd like to suggest you for the position.”_

_There. It was done. Rei sighed with little discretion and raised his back up again. “If you're interested, of course”, he added, with an anxious smile._

_Jeremy was taken aback. The offer was a huge surprise, and, despite the fact that the new team wasn't set up yet, and the future ally hadn't been named, it was interesting. Technical director was a high-responsibility post – so perhaps it wasn't surprising the project was so blurry at this stage, since senior personnel was being sought after –, and it was higher than the one he had or could hope for while remaining an employee of the manufacturer. He imagined he'd still be a crew chief in 2017. As “TD”, he'd have more freedom to set up the car, such as suggesting supplier changes or ditching an upgrade that might not be working well, whereas at the Iwatobi Racing Team, the configurations and equipment were imposed by the manufacturer._

“ _I need some time”, Jeremy mumbled._

“ _Of... of course, you have time to think about it!”, Rei stuttered. “If you want the details, this is the person to contact.” He handed Jeremy a card. The American's eyes grew wide when he saw the name: Sosuke Yamazaki._

 

Rei looked up at Sosuke, his new boss of sorts, who returned a soft and confident smile.

“I'm so glad I have you guys onboard”, he said. “I remember, my heart sank more than expected when the head of Mazdaspeed told me he was moving the works operation to another team. I had just taken the position of principal, I didn't want to stop so soon!”

“I told you it would suit you”, Seijuro beamed, boisterously slapping him on the right shoulder – a few years earlier, that would have been a bad, bad mistake!

“I remember when you said you were leaving”, Sosuke continued, with a giggle building up. “And Rin...”

“Oi! Don't bring that up!”, Rin shouted, his face becoming almost as red as his hair.

“Sorry”, Sosuke apologised flatly. While the Samezuka people had witnessed the scene in the garage after the Australian race, the others could guess how Rin had reacted. “You must have thought we'd never get to race together again.”

“But you _did_ race together again, _senpai_!”, Ai noted. Sosuke turned to him and smiled gratefully, for it was Nitori who had made that possible.

 

_In Australia, the new manager had promised to settle the driver line-up for the season. Rin, Ai and Momo were sharing the car, but it itched him to get behind the wheel again, especially as he may not get another chance. Until Le Mans, he could only guess which team was going to replace Samezuka in 2017, but in France, McLaren announced its withdrawal from the AERS at the end of 2016 – Team7 was surely the chosen one. Once the 24 Hours were done, and with potentially as few as two races left, Ai had volunteered to take over on pit wall and give Sosuke his place at Imola and Suzuka. The result was a hard-fought second place in Italy, Sosuke resisted Peter Perfect all the way to the flag._

 

The scenes of joy on the Samezuka pit wall, as well as images of the screaming Furai performing a burn-out and making donuts on the tarmac run-off at Acque Minerali popped into everyone's mind.

“Yeah! And we got our best finish ever!”, Momo shouted. “I'm sure that with Ai-chan and Nagisa-senpai, we'll get more podiums next year!”

“Are... are both of you going to call me that now?”, Nitori cringed. Momo was a handful on his own, so Ai imagined that things would only get worse with Nagisa joining the team. Makoto laughed gently, absorbing the ambient optimism.

“It's true, you guys had a great season, better than ours”, he recognised. “Still, we got what was most important to me...”

 

_Makoto maintained a decent rhythm during his final stint, but it became apparent that a fight for an extra place wasn't going to materialise. So, instead of pushing, Makoto concentrated on the pleasure of driving on the Le Mans circuit. The endless Hunaudières straights, the sweeping and fast Indianapolis and Porsche Curves, the relatively packed grandstands beside the home straight and the chicanes around it..._

“ _Should be six laps”, Rei announced on the radio. The chequered flag was within reach. Every moment of the previous few weeks had been enjoyable for Makoto, but the one he wanted the most was still approximately twenty minutes away._

_After completing another tour, he found himself catching up to a familiar shape._

“ _Is Samezuka back out?”, he asked. Over an hour earlier, when Makoto had taken over the number 17, the Mazda was in the garage, the pit crew battling to get an electrical problem fixed._

“ _Affirmative”, Rei replied. “That's Rin at the wheel.” Makoto smiled beneath his helmet. It had been a long, hard race for Iwatobi's old rivals, as several problems overnight and through the morning saw them lose a large number of laps. The blue-and-whites had also suffered setbacks, but it never looked like they had picked up anything terminal. For both teams, finishing the event was the only goal; Iwatobi wanted to do it again after a bitter retirement in 2015, and, for Samezuka, it would be a first._

_Rin was driving very gently in order to preserve his machine, so it wasn't long before Makoto overtook him. But, to Rin's shock, Makoto didn't pull away once he had made the pass. On the main straight with three to go, the Samezuka driver let his feelings be known on the radio._

“ _What's Makoto playing at?”, he ranted._

“ _What do you mean, is he getting in your way?”, Seijuro asked._

“ _No, not really, he's just not clearing off! He's dropped his pace!”_

“ _Well, as long as he's not blocking you, let him do what he wants. Concentrate. Maintain your rhythm.”_

_Rin observed Makoto's attitude going into the chicanes on the Hunaudières: he was braking at the same marker as him, and even lifting slightly before that, to compensate for the better acceleration out of the corners. The conclusion was that Makoto was going slowly on purpose, intentionally running with him._

_Inside the Chrysler, the Iwatobi driver could imagine his Samezuka counterpart's thoughts. “I'm coasting, you fool! Leave me to nurse this thing to the end! Just go!”, he could hear Rin shout. But Makoto was determined, and replied, “I'm sticking with you whether you like it or not. Now let's get to the end of this thing!”_

_Another ten minutes later, with the class wins in little doubt, the marshals around the circuit displayed all their flags to salute the competitors on their final lap. They added a mix of colours either side of Makoto's cherished vision of clear blue sky above him. Through Arnage, he wondered whether Rin was seeing the same thing. After a long hour and a half of worrying about every single sound and vibration in the cockpit, the finish was tantalisingly close for the Samezuka driver, and the twirling cloths only added pressure, making him wish harder that his car wouldn't let him down._

_Makoto slowed early into the final Ford chicane, letting Rin almost draw level with him around the outside into the corner. The complex didn't lend itself to side-by-side running, but once the corners were done with, Makoto moved to the right and delayed his acceleration. The clerk of the course waved the chequered flag to the delight and relief of both pit crews, including Nagisa, who held out his mobile phone to take a dream photo of cars 17 and 22 crossing the line together. As they weren't podium finishers, they were then led to the main parc fermé, an area in the paddock behind the newest garages, to await scrutineering. There, Rin and Makoto spent a whole minute in a friendly embrace before returning to their elated garages. The Iwatobi driver was particularly happy, for not only had he taken the finish of the 24 Hours, he had also shared a sporting moment with Rin. Usually, that privilege was Haru's._

 

“It felt fantastic... and Rin was so emotional...”

“Gah, that's enough!”, Rin shouted, tired of being reminded of the times he had cried that year. He had been the one to break the hug with Makoto, so that he could sit on the ground next to his car and cry, overwhelmed by the mixture of joy, sense of accomplishment, relief and exhaustion.

“Sorry, Rin”, Makoto apologised, with more sincerity than Sosuke had. “It's just that, for me, that was the highest point of the year.”

“It's true that for our team, between finishing Le Mans and two more podiums, it's harder to choose!”, Seijuro said, rather bluntly. Since the “highlight” theme seemed to be going around, he took his turn: “but, on a personal level, nothing beats becoming a father.”

 

_He was particularly proud that his child was a boy; convinced that he and his brother were destined for greatness, he was hopeful that his son would also turn to swimming and keep the name Mikoshiba in the top flight, with his father's and uncle's times to aim for. So he went to the Olympic qualification trials wanting to set a tough benchmark. With this massive confidence boost, he confirmed his place ahead of Rin, beating him to the second 200m butterfly spot for Rio. Despite winning no medals there, he had still made it, which, considering the unusually high standards required by the Japanese Swimming Federation, was a major achievement by itself._

 

“If you don't mind, Mikoshiba-san, there's something I've wanted to ask”, said Makoto, rising to his feet and facing the former Samezuka captain. “You were obviously confident after the birth, but to the point of entering freestyle, which you don't normally swim...” In irresistible form, Seijuro had also beaten Haru in the 200m freestyle in April, although neither had reached the time needed to go to Brazil.

“I didn't have any real ambition for that race, and I definitely wasn't aiming to take Nanase-san's place”, Seijuro stated, guessing that Makoto was standing up for Haru. “I wanted to race Nanase-san just once, because Matsuoka's always talking about how amazing it is...”

“That's not true!”, an exasperated Rin responded. Clearly, his curiosity for the Iwatobi boys' letters had evolved into a big recollection moment and had got the better of him. “I may have mentioned it... what, three or four times in total? In three years?” Of course, it was a lot more, and his laughing team-mates knew it. All this time though, Haru remained quiet and pensive.

 

_The racing season had been good, with a more relaxed atmosphere. The Iwatobi Racing Team had finished Le Mans again, which made Makoto happy, so he was glad to have been a part of that. No big results had come his way, but swimming had been more important to Haru in 2016, and the news of the goal posts being moved to qualify for the Olympics had come to him as a severe blow. It even strained his relationship with Makoto slightly, with the taller man believing that convincing his friend to come back for another season of motor racing contributed to his failures. Haru had none of it though: no training could possibly have made him get that much faster with so little notice, and that was all – Makoto had nothing to blame himself for. Nonetheless, Haru decided that he had to concentrate on swimming full-time in order to make it to the 2020 Games which would be in Japan._

 

Out of the awkward silence of the men realising what Haru's feelings were, came a woman's voice.

“As the famous saying goes: when one door closes, another opens.”

Gou was right. Rin, Haru and Makoto had all decided to retire from endurance racing, and all three of them because of their careers to some extent. Without enough drivers, the Iwatobi Racing Team would shut down, but Sosuke had offered those who remained to team up with the Samezuka Academy squad. The result was the _Eternal Summer Racing Team_ : with Sosuke and Gou in charge, Nagisa, Ai and Momo forming an impressive trio of drivers combining precise set-up abilities and aggressive racecraft, a technical staff led by Rei and Jeremy, Ties as the title sponsor and victorious Maserati machinery, it was ready to make its debut at Spa a few weeks later. Working in the unified squad would be different though, and Gou emotionally admitted that, at the Gala dinner in Nagoya, where all the drivers of the Series went dressed in beautifully coloured kimono, she realised that something was coming to an end, and that she was going to miss seeing her brother in the paddock, and managing Haru and Makoto.

Then, in a flash, she returned to her motivated look, and spoke confidently.

“But I'm sure we'll reunite again. Someday, somehow...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a sum-up of what would have been Season Three, had I decided to write it. It wouldn't have been bad, I think, as there were plenty of new themes to explore: to retire or not to retire, Samezuka not having their contract extended, Nagisa coming out of Haru's shadow in an attempt to convince another team to take him on... But from early on when writing Season Two, I felt that it wouldn't be worthwhile to drag the concept on for another year. This is a niche fic, after all. But it's been an experience to write this, I'm so glad I managed to get to the end of it. I take the opportunity to thank everyone who's had a look, I'm very grateful to those who stuck around until the end and I hope that those who did have enjoyed it. As ever, don't hesitate to leave a comment, I'd be happy to read reviews from you!  
> Stay tuned for the final glimpse into the future, coming up on Wednesday 21st September, and until then, I'll be putting up some unseen pictures, new pictures (if I get around to drawing them) and anecdotes on the blog under the tags “bonus trivia” and “countdown to the end of FastER!” There are already the definitive 2015 suit designs in there!


	35. Fast! Forward!

**Sunday 9 th-Saturday 15th September 2018**

The car passed its conformity checks as it had countless times that season, although, at Le Mans, there was an extra ceremonial dimension to the verifications due to them being public. While being photographed from different angles by the audience, the number 27 Maserati was rolled out of the scrutineering bay and into the sunlight of Place de la République by three engineers who would next position it for the team photo. Walking beside it, Jeremy held a set of legality stickers.

“Hey, Gou!”, he called, waving a couple of them. “Want to do the honours on the 26?” A second Maserati was already parked with its crew of mechanics nearby. In contrast to its plain white stable-mate, it was richly decorated with multicoloured cherry blossom motifs at the front and a blue and white chequered pattern at the back, all in reference to the 2020 OIympic Games in Japan. Even if it wasn't painted by an artist, some in the media had dubbed the vehicle “the Art Car” because of its dense special livery. Gou looked for the most adequate place to appose the two stickers; Rei peeked over her shoulder to see if the result would be reasonably beautiful. The task on the other car was easier: Jeremy just put them in their usual spot. With the stickers in place, the cars were identified as machines in the “Open” category, basically X1 with a newer engine (in the case of the Maserati, a KERS-supplemented V12), officially declared legal and ready to run in the following weekend's 24-hour race.

As expected with two cars, Eternal Summer Racing Team had six drivers at the event, and, just after Gou and Rei had agreed on where to place the stickers on the Olympic car, they came out of the registration tent. Around their principal, Sosuke, were the three regulars, Nagisa, Aiichiro and Momotaro, in their usual Ties-branded white and sky blue suits, accompanied by three returnees: Makoto, Rin and Haru, in red and white overalls imitating the Japanese swimming team's jackets, were making a one-off comeback to motor racing. Rin had a new helmet design for the occasion, with the bloodthirsty shark replaced by cherry blossom.

After a quick chat, it was time to take the group photo. The cars formed a V pointing towards the camera, the mechanics stood in a triangle in between, and the drivers, with their helmets at their feet, lined up in front, with the race engineers in the middle. The right-hand side, in front of car 27, was a little more chaotic than the left. Momo, with a wide, beaming grin, jumped on his team-mates' shoulders, which made Nagisa, who already had his hands on Rei, yank his race engineer out of position slightly. Unlike previous years, Rei was planning to pull off an all-nighter and work around the clock during the race, hence he had Jeremy next to him for symmetry, while Sosuke and Gou would share the tactical tasks for car 26. The two managers stood next to their drivers, Rin, Haru and Makoto from right to left.

“This is _definitely_ our ultimate team”, Rin stated proudly, and the pride spread to the smiles of his co-drivers, his boss and Gou, who was glad to be on her brother's team for a change. The overhead picture of the whole squad was taken, and a few photographers moved in to take closer ones, then the drivers went over to the barriers to talk to journalists or sign more autographs while the cars were wheeled back to the trucks. The mood was unflappably upbeat, and perhaps no-one was doing his duty more whole-heartedly than Makoto, the man who had first asked “wouldn't it be fun to try endurance racing?”

 

In the middle of his final year of Master's, his dream diploma within reach, and a part-time voluntary fireman, the tall, fit, charming brown-haired driver was sporting a light beard, and felt like he was in the happiest year of his life. Returning to Le Mans was a huge treat. He knew that the appearance at the Verifications was just the starting point of a long week, and he was eagerly looking forward to each day: go-kart challenge on Monday, physical training on Tuesday, qualifying in the dark on Wednesday and Thursday, drivers' meeting and a leisurely swim on Friday, and the build-up to the race on Saturday.

The moment the boys went out the back of the garages to get ready for the parade was when they truly felt that the race was upon them. Just under an hour from then, the six drivers, at the controls of splendid machines, backed up by a crew of mechanics, engineers and managers, would work indefatigably to get to the finish in front of as many fellow competitors as possible, and preferably ahead of their team-mates. In the grandstands opposite the garages, Seijuro, who had declined to return as a back-up race engineer, had come to spectate with his family and cheer his brother on. Nearby, Russell and Lori, on holiday in France, were going to root for Rin's car. Back in Japan, the families of the team members had once again gathered at the Tachibana household to watch the event on TV.

 

At 3 PM, the formation lap came to an end. Separated by only hundredths of a second in qualifying, the two ESRT Maseratis were on the same row of the grid, and, before the eyes of tens of thousands of spectators, they drove by beneath the French flag in unison to start a new twenty-four hour adventure.

 

**_THE END_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A last little motor racing trivia reference in this chapter: “Art Cars” are a real thing, BMW do some regularly, Aston Martin and OAK Racing have also recently raced Art Cars at Le Mans.  
> Anyway, that's it for the Future Free! Motor Racing AU, at least in fanfic form. There are lots of [bonus trivia](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com/tagged/bonus_trivia) and drawings on [the blog](http://aers-radio.tumblr.com), and there will be more, so don't hesitate to check from time to time.  
> I hope you've enjoyed the series! AERS Radio out!
> 
>  **Update Dec 2017.** I've added a small fic to the universe. Not a racing fic, more focused on the characters of Rei and Nagisa during the 2017 season, as they spend some time with another race engineer with paranormal abilities... _The Fair Value of Knowledge_ can be found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12637356/chapters/28795896)!


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